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THE BOY JESUS 

AND OTHEE SERMONS 



BY REV. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D. 



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THE BOY JESUS 

AND OTHER SERMONS 




WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D. 

PASTOK EMERITUS OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE, NEW YORK CITY 



9 



<5 0* CQ%>> 




A. C. AKMSTKONG AND SON 

51 East 10 th Street, near Broadway 

1893 



'Of 



Copyright, 1893, 
By A. C. Armstrong and Son. 



tHmbersitg ^ress : 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



In the Providence of God I have been laid aside from 
the ministry of the pulpit, but there is still left to me 
that of the press ; and in my months of silence I have 
had great comfort under my affliction in the selection 
and preparation for publication of the discourses which 
form this volume. 

I hope also in this way to prolong my usefulness as a 
preacher of that gospel to the furtherance of which I 
gave my life at first, and would give it again, only with 
more intensity than ever, if 1 had the opportunity. 

Praying that, as in the preaching of them originally, 
so now in the printing of them, these sermons may, in 
the hands of God's Holy Spirit, be the means of blessing 
to many souls, I lay them upon his altar, as a thank- 
offering for countless mercies. 

New York, October, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

I. The Boy Jesus • 1 

II. The Gospel according to John the Baptist ... 17 

III. Risen with Christ . . . . 29 

IV. Early Piety 41 

V. Seeking Great Things 57 

VI. Him with whom we have to do . . . 74 

VII. "I Know where Thou Dwellest " 90 

VIII. The Silence op Jesus = 105 

IX. There came out this Calf .......... 119 

X. The Residue ...... 129 

XI. Three Estimates op one Character ...... 140 

XIIo Satan's Estimate of Human Nature 153 

XIII. The Way and the Leading . . . 167 

XIV. The Holy Spirit as a Factor in our Prayers . « 182 
XV. Visions 194 

XVI. The Province of Feeling in Religious Experience 206 
XVII. The Place and Power of Individuality in Chris- 
tian Life and Work ........... 218 

XVIII. The Readiness of the Gospel of Peace .... 231 

XIX. The Interpreting Influence of Time ..... 242 

XX. Praise 255 

XXI. The Irrepressible in Christian Testimony . . . 263 
XXII. Characteristics and Trials of Revival .... 277 

XXIII. The Plague of the Heart 290 



SERMONS. 



I. 

THE BOY JESUS. 
A Christmas Sermon. 
The boy Jesus. — Luke ii. 43 (Revised Version). 

I prefer the reading of the Revisers, because it marks 
the difference between the original word, which in the 
common version is rendered " child " in the fortieth 
verse, and that which is translated by the same English 
term in the text. In the Greek, the former is (irathLov) 
the diminutive form of the latter (7rat?). The former 
denotes a little child, and is especially appropriate to one 
in the years of early infancy ; the latter signifies a young 
person, and is used of one at any age from infancy up 
to manhood. Besides, having regard to the statement of 
the forty-second verse, that he was now " twelve years 
old," nothing could be happier or more idiomatic than 
the rendering given by the Revisers, " The boy Jesus." 

Our subject, then, this morning is the boyhood of him 
whose coming into the world is uppermost to-day in all our 
thoughts. Now, when we turn to the Gospel narratives, 
with the view of learning what they contain in refer- 
ence to this portion of the life of Christ, we are at once 
impressed by two things, — first, the marvellous silence 

l 



2 THE BOY JESUS. 

which the Evangelists have maintained concerning the 
years between his infancy and manhood ; and second, 
the still more marvellous character of the records which 
they have preserved belonging to that interval. 

We notice, first, a marvellous reticence. We have 
full particulars regarding his birth, and the wonders 
which were attendant thereon. Luke tells us of the 
annunciation made by the angel to the Virgin ; of the 
appearance of the angel to the shepherds, and of 
the song of the heavenly host. And Matthew gives us 
an account of the coming of the wise men to Bethlehem 
under the guidance of the star ; of the flight of the Holy 
Family into Egypt, and of their return to Palestine, 
where they took up their abode in Nazareth. But from 
that point on, till his baptism at the Jordan, we have 
only one incident of his life recorded. That, as we 
shall see before we close, was remarkable enough ; it 
is even more so than the silence of the authors of the 
Gospels concerning everything else. Now, when we re- 
member how, in regard to others whose lives have been 
afterward noteworthy, whether as warriors or teachers, 
the tendency of all biographers has been to gather up 
every trifling detail which might help to show that the 
boy was " father to the man," and magnify it into im- 
portance; above all, when we know what manner of 
things have been told in the Apocryphal Gospels in 
regard to the doings of Jesus himself during his boy- 
hood, — it is impossible to believe that this silence of the 
Evangelists is altogether accidental. They had ample 
opportunities, either by application to Mary herself, or 
by referring to the brothers of Jesus, who were brought 
up beside him, and who at a later date became his dis- 
ciples, of acquainting themselves with the real facts ; 
they were themselves men of like passions with others, 



THE BOY JESUS. 



3 



and if left to themselves they would have been just as 
likely to insert these in their memorabilia as ordinary 
biographers are to dwell upon the child-life of their 
heroes. Whence, then, this reticence ? The only satis- 
factory answer, as it seems to me, which can be given 
to that question is that they were under supernatural 
guidance ; and few stronger confirmations of the inspi- 
ration- of the Evangelists are to be found than that 
which one receives from the contrast between the 
Apocryphal Gospels and the narratives of Matthew and 
Luke in this regard. As one has said of these spurious 
productions, " They are particularly full of the sayings 
and doings of the childhood of Jesus. But they only 
show how unequal the human imagination was to such 
a theme, and bring out by the contrast of glitter and 
caricature the solidity and truthfulness of the Scripture 
narrative. They make him a worker of frivolous and 
useless marvels, who moulded birds of clay and made 
them fly, changed his playmates into kids, and so forth. 
In short, they are compilations of worthless and often 
blasphemous fables." 1 This wonderful silence of the 
Evangelists, therefore, tantalizing as we may sometimes 
feel it to be, becomes, when rightly regarded, a valuable 
and striking proof of their divine inspiration. 

But still the question presses for an answer in an- 
other shape, " Why were they guided by the Inspiring 
Spirit to preserve this reticence ? " and to that, perhaps, 
no complete answer can be given. But one has been 
offered, and may be mentioned here, as suggesting a 
profitable train of thought. As I have already inciden- 
tally hinted, there were other children besides Jesus in 
the house of Joseph. They are called in the narrative 
" the brothers of the Lord;" and there has been much 

1 Stalker's Life of Jesus Christ, p. 18. 



4 THE BOY JESUS. 

controversy as to who they were, — whether the children 
of Joseph by a former marriage, or the first cousins of 
the Lord on his mother's side, or the children of Joseph 
and Mary born subsequently to the birth of Jesus; but 
it would not be profitable to enter here upon the merits 
of that discussion. Suffice it to say, that with Neander, 
Farrar, and not a few others, I have been led to adopt 
the view that these brothers were the children of Joseph 
and Mary. They were, of course, younger than Jesus, 
but they shared the Nazarene home with him for many 
years ; and it is noteworthy that both Mark and John 
agree in the statement that they remained unbelievers 
in his claims to the Messiahship until after his resur- 
rection. Now, this fact may help to explain the silence 
of the Evangelists concerning the boyhood of the Lord. 
As Neander says : " It is not to be wondered at that 
the prophet was without honor among those who dwelt 
under the same roof, and saw him grow up under the 
same laws of ordinary human nature with themselves. 
True, this daily contact afforded them many opportu- 
nities of beholding the divinity that streamed through 
the veil of his flesh ; yet it required a spiritual mind 
and a lively faith to recognize the revealed Son of God 
in the lowly garb of humanity. The impression of 
humanity made upon their senses day after day, and 
thus grown into a habit, could not be made to yield 
to the divine manifestations, unless in longer time than 
was required for others ; but when it did yield, and 
after such long-continued opposition they acknowledged 
their brother to be the Son of God and the Messiah, 
they only became thereby the more trustworthy wit- 
nesses." 1 But if the record of such a life as that 
which they thus daily observed had been given by the 

1 Neander's Life of Christ, p. 33. 



THE BOY JESUS. 



5 



Evangelists, then it might have done for others what 
the observance of that life did for them ; and so it 
might have kept its readers from fully realizing the 
deity of the Son of Man. As Ellicott has observed : 
" The material and familiar was a hindrance to their 
recognition of the spiritual, — a hindrance, be it not 
forgotten, which in their case (that is, the case of the 
brothers of the Lord) was removed, but a hindrance in 
the case of those who could not have their advantages, 
which might never have been removed ; an obstacle to 
a true acknowledgment of their Lord's divinity, against 
which faith might not have been able to prevail." 1 If 
that view of the matter be correct, then it is easy for 
us to see that in this particular portion of the sacred 
history, " the prerogative of solemn reserve," which 
Scripture has assumed to itself, is for us a matter of 
thankfulness rather than of regret. 

But now, in the second place, we find that such rec- 
ords as are given of the Saviours boyhood are even 
more marvellous than is the general silence to which 
we have referred. Exclusive of the account of the visit 
to the Temple when he was twelve years old, these 
records are entirely comprised in the following state- 
ments : " And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled 
with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him." 
" And he went down with' them, and came to Naza- 
reth ; and he was subject unto them." u And Jesus ad- 
vanced in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God 
and men." Now, I have said that these utterances are 
more marvellous than the silence. Ordinary writers of 
such a history, standing merely on the human side, 
would have given us records of wonders that revealed 
his deity, and would have been most concerned to estab- 

1 Historical Lectures on the Life of the Lord Jesus, p. 101. 



6 THE BOY JESUS. 

lish the reality of that ; but these statements are all 
concerned with his humanity, and go to prove the genu- 
ineness of that. The Apocryphal Gospels invent mira- 
cles rather than have none at all ; but the inspired 
Evangelists dwell on the reality of the boyhood, and on 
the evidence thereby furnished of his true humanity. 
Does not that suggest that the Gospels were written 
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and from the 
divine standpoint ? From that standpoint it was the 
humanity that was the miracle. Gf that, therefore, chief 
mention is made. To us the mystery of the incarnation 
is that deity should tabernacle in humanity ; but to the 
celestial ones the mystery of it is that humanity should 
be the tabernacle of deity. Merely uninspired writers, 
therefore, might be expected to put forward the marvels 
that indicate to men the presence of deity, while those 
inspired by the Spirit of God speak, as we see here, of the 
proofs of the fact that it was a true humanity in which 
deity did dwell. And, in all soberness, the words of 
Luke, in the verses which I have quoted, take us into the 
very heart of the mystery of the incarnation. We do not 
marvel to read that " the grace of God was upon him." 
But when we remember that we are reading of him who 
was the Word, who as the Word was God, and who 
became flesh, and then pause over the phrases, Jesus 
" advanced in wisdom and stature and in favour with God 
and men," we are enveloped in mystery. We do not, it 
is true, as a general rule, feel so much difficulty over 
the assertion that he increased in stature, as we do over 
the saying that he increased in wisdom ; and yet it was 
just as natural that he should do the one as the other, 
and there is really as much of mystery in the one as in 
the other. What the Evangelist means to tell us is that 
Jesus was a real boy, and that his human growth and 



THE BOY JESUS. 



7 



development were subject to the ordinary laws of child 
and boy life. From his birth, indeed, deity tabernacled 
within him ; but, however great the mystery, that did 
not interfere with his progressive human life. It con- 
ditioned it, indeed, so that it was entirely sinless, — a 
perfect life ; yet, thus far, only the perfect life of a boy ; 
and as a boy he had no advantage over other boys, save 
in the moral safeguards which were furnished by the 
residence of deity within him. When he came to earth, 
as Paul tells us, " he emptied himself," — that is, as I 
understand the words, he laid aside, not his deity, but 
all the accessory advantages which belong to him in 
right of his deity, or what the same apostle calls the 
" form of God ; " and he took upon him " the form," 
with all its limitations and conditions, first of a little 
child, then of a boy, then of a man. He had to learn 
to speak like other children. He had to learn to think 
like other children. He had to learn to read like other 
children. None of these things came to him by virtue 
of his divine omniscience. He had to acquire them all 
just like other children. That belonged to the limita- 
tion which his incarnation imposed on him. Indeed, it 
was involved in his incarnation. He grew in knowledge 
just as he grew in physical stature. 

Now, with these things in our minds, let us go down 
with him to Nazareth. He was " brought up " in the 
household of Joseph, who is described as a " just " or 
" righteous " man, and must, therefore, have been a 
pious Jew ; while all that we know of Mary — the most 
exalted among women — proves her to have been a 
woman of genuine piety, of great strength of mind, and 
of far more than average intelligence. Their home was 
that of working people, — simple, unpretending, pious. 
And as Lois and Eunice instructed Timothy out of the 



8 THE BOY JESUS. 

Scriptures, so, we may well believe, would Mary and 
Joseph talk to Jesus of the wonderful things in their 
national history. They told him, doubtless, the stories 
of Abraham and Isaac, of Jacob and Joseph, of Moses 
and Samuel; and perhaps in the home, certainly in the 
synagogue, — when he was old enough to understand the 
readers there, — he would become acquainted with the 
Psalms of David, and the ritual and history of his people. 

Then, after the custom of the Jews at that time, when 
he was six years old he would be sent to school. For by 
an accomplished writer we are told that u eighty years 
before Christ, schools flourished throughout the length 
and breadth of the land. These schools were free, and 
were for all alike. Education was taken up as a national 
work, and laws were passed fixing the location and the 
form of school buildings, the number of children to one 
teacher, the age of pupils, and the duty of parents in pre- 
paring their children for school, and in watching over 
their studies. By much effort a law was passed making 
education compulsory ; but at first that law did not ap- 
ply to Galilee, yet Galilee had its village schools which 
were open to all. We know that Jesus could read and 
write ; and we may well suppose that at the usual age 
he was sent to school with the other children of the 
village. This school at Nazareth was not like the high 
schools in our great cities, or the academies of our large 
towns and villages, where children are taught a little of 
almost everything ; but it was a sort of parish school, 
kept by an officer of the synagogue, and the children 
were taught to read, to write, and to cipher, and were 
made to learn by heart the Bible history and the Psalms 
that were used in public worship. Besides this, they 
had lessons in the meaning of the sacred law, and in 
the moral duties of life. . . . The teacher wore a tur- 



THE BOY JESUS. 



9 



ban, and a long robe or gown, fastened with a girdle, 
around his waist. He sat upon a cushion, with his legs 
crossed under him, . . . and the children sat cross- 
legged in a circle upon cushions on the floor. They 
had no desks, but held their books or scrolls in their 
hands ; and whatever the teacher told them they would 
repeat together after him at the top of their voices. 
One can see just such schools now in Egypt and Syria." 1 

This account may help us, without doing any violence 
to probability, to realize the school -life of " the boy 
Jesus and I am particular to bring it out to-day, for 
two reasons : first, because it may tend to reconcile the 
boys and girls among us to what they sometimes think 
is the drudgery of school-life, to remember that " the 
boy Jesus " went to school just as they are doing now. 
He did not shrink from all that was required of him 
there, in order that he might fit himself for the work 
which he was afterward to accomplish ; and if he who 
came to be our Saviour did all that for our sakes, it is 
only showing gratitude to him when we seek to make 
the best of ourselves through education for his sake. 
What a school-boy he must have been ! Such school- 
boys try you to be ; and when you come to hard places 
in your lessons, or to difficulties in your intercourse 
with school-fellows or teachers, then lift your hearts in 
prayer to him who was once at school himself. You 
will be sure of his sympathy, and you will not be left 
without his assistance. 

But I have dwelt thus on the school-life of " the 
boy Jesus " for a second reason ; namely, that I might 
show you how impossible it is to account for the intel- 
lectual greatness of Christ by the environment in which 

1 Jesus of Nazareth, a Book for Young People, by Joseph P. Thomp- 
son, D.D., LL.D., pp. 76, 77. 



10 THE BOY JESUS. 

we find him. Think of the carpenter's home and the 
village school of Nazareth ; then read the Sermon on 
the Mount, and the discourses reported in John's Gos- 
pel, and say if it be possible to believe that a young 
man of thirty, who was no more than a mere man, and 
who had only these advantages, could have been their 
author. Surely, the question of the Jews themselves is 
in order here, " How knoweth this man letters, having 
never learned ? " — that is, having never been at any 
such recognized seminary as those of Hillel and Gama- 
liel. There is no doubt that Jesus, being a young man, 
did make these discourses, which by common consent 
have been regarded as the greatest utterances formu- 
lated in human speech ; there is just as little doubt that 
he had in his boyhood no greater advantages than we 
have described, and so, not to speak at all of his moral 
perfection, his intellectual pre-eminence becomes an 
enigma for which nothing short of miracle can account. 

But in speaking of what we may call the education of 
" the boy Jesus," we must not forget the locality of 
Nazareth. The place itself, indeed, had no enviable 
notoriety in the land, and there was ground enough for 
the question of Nathanael, " Can there any good thing 
come out of Nazareth ? " but its situation was one both 
of beauty and of interest. The valley to which it gives 
its name is hidden among the hills that bound the 
northern edge of the plain of Esdraelon, and forms a 
pretty basin about a mile long by a quarter of a mile 
broad. To the northwest is a hill much higher than the 
others, the side of which is marked by little ridges, 
and along these the houses stand in rows, as one has 
said, " like a handful of pearls in a basin of emerald." 
Down among some olive-trees in the valley is a spring, 
now called the Fountain of the Virgin, to which, per- 



THE BOY JESUS. 



11 



haps, Jesus may have accompanied his mother when she 
went to draw water ; and when he was old enough, he 
must have gone often to the top of the hill behind the 
town, — from which at a later date his townsmen were 
for casting him down, — and there feasted his eyes on 
the magnificent panorama that opened before him. It 
was not only a goodly prospect in itself, but it was cov- 
ered with the most spirit-stirring historical associations. 
On that great plain before him many decisive battles 
had been fought. Far away yonder was Carmel, where 
Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal, and Elisha had 
his quiet retreat. Within sight, also, were Gilboa, on 
which Saul fell before the Philistines ; and Tabor, where 
Deborah rallied the armies of Israel against Sisera. Yon- 
der, again, was Jezreel, where the Tishbite bearded Ahab 
in the vineyard which he had made his own by murder. 
Wherever he looked he was confronted by some histori- 
cal association, and so such a prospect was to the Jew- 
ish boy much what the view from the battlements of 
Stirling Castle is to the young Scotchman with the 
halo of piety added to that of patriotism ; and even to 
look intelligently upon it, would be itself an education. 
It was thus a fitting locality for the training of him who 
came to set up the kingdom of God on the earth, and to 
reclaim the allegiance of the nations to their God. 

These, then, were " the schools and schoolmasters " 
of "the boy Jesus," — Joseph, his mother Mary, the 
school, the synagogue, the locality ; and under the com- 
bined influence of them all he grew until he was twelve 
years old, when the one recorded incident of his boy- 
hood occurred, and to that I must now very briefly 
direct your attention. Though his mother taught him 
much, there is no evidence to show that she said any- 
thing to him about the circumstances of his birth, or 



12 THE BOY JESUS. 

the mission on which, according to the saying of the 
angel, he was sent. The probability rather is that she 
kept all these things in her heart, and waited with pa- 
tience for the manifestation of anything in himself 
which might give token of the fulfilment of her antici- 
pations. The truth in all likelihood was that as he 
grew in intelligence, so he grew into the knowledge 
and recognition of the deity which from the first dwelt 
within him. There were probably landing-places in the 
stairway up which he ascended to the full recognition of 
his own divine Sonship and Messianic dignity ; but he 
went up that stairway gradually, and perhaps the attain- 
ment of the first of these landing-places by him was con- 
nected with the visit to Jerusalem which now he made. 
At least, it was during that visit that he made the first 
recorded utterance which indicated that already he felt 
within him and recognized the stirrings of that divine in- 
dwelling with which from the first he had been endowed. 

The occasion is familiar to you all. When among 
the Jews a boy had reached the age of twelve, he 
became what was called " a son of the law," and was 
expected to conform to all the requirements of the 
Mosaic ritual. Hence it was usual for him to be taken 
then for the first time to the Temple of Jerusalem, to 
the greatest of the three annual feasts. Such an occa- 
sion was always an epoch in the history of a youth, for 
the scenes which passed before his eyes, both on the 
way to Jerusalem and in the Holy City itself, were well 
calculated to awaken his mind to earnest though tf ill- 
ness. It was in fact the mental birth-time of many. 
The songs which the pilgrim* chanted on their journey ; 
the beauty of the country through which they passed ; 
the magnificence of the city to which they went ; above 
all, the grandeur of the temple, with its imposing wor- 



THE BOY JESUS. 



13 



ship, — all combined to make this first visit memorable 
to a boy, and gave to his after life a new significance. 
It stimulated curiosity, it evoked power, it turned the 
mind into the direction of holy things ; and as Jesus 
was a real boy, we have every reason to believe that this 
going up to Jerusalem for the first time would be quick- 
ening to him in the highest degree. We do not wonder, 
therefore, that most of all in the metropolis he was at- 
tracted to the schools of the Doctors, and that with the 
eagerness natural to his age he took advantage of the 
opportunity to ask such questions as he had been pon- 
dering in his heart. Nay, so absorbed did he become in 
this employment — as interesting and suggestive to the 
teachers, we may believe, as it was instructive to him- 
self — that when it was time to take their departure 
Joseph and his mother could not find him. At first 
they supposed that he was with some companions in the 
caravan, and they went a day's journey on their home- 
ward way ; but when after search that evening he was 
not found in the company, they returned to the city, 
where, on the following day, after a long search, they 
discovered him, much to their surprise, among the stu- 
dents. " Son," said his mother, " why hast thou thus 
dealt with us ? Behold, thy father and I have sought 
thee sorrowing." And he replied, " How is it that ye 
sought me ? Wist ye not that I must be about my 
Father's business ? " " My father," as if he had said, 
" did not require to seek me. He knew — what it 
is strange you did not know — that I must be about 
his work." Thus he indicates his realization of his 
divine Sonship, and makes plain that he has come to 
the perception of his true life-work. The words must 
have gone to Mary's heart as with an electric thrill, 
reviving in her the memories of the Annunciation and 



14 THE BOY JESUS. 

of Bethlehem ; so she said nothing in reply, but laid the 
saying away among those which she had so often pon- 
dered, and all of which were yet to be so completely 
fulfilled. But now he returns with her to Nazareth, — 
recognizing that as an essential part of his Father's 
business, — and patiently, through eighteen years, he 
wrought at the carpenter's bench, waiting the time for 
his fuller manifestation, when to this earliest word of 
Messianic consciousness he should add these others, 
" My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to 
finish his work." " I must work the work of him that 
sent me while it is day ; the night cometh when no man 
can work ; " and not to cease until he could say, " I have 
glorified thee on the earth ; I have finished the work 
which thou gavest me to do." " It is finished." 

I have left myself no time to draw any lessons from 
this review of the Saviour's boyhood. I name only three 
inferences from this first recorded saying of the Lord : 

It is a great thing to find out that God is my father. 
This never can be true of any one of us in precisely 
the same sense as it was true here of " the boy Jesus ; " 
but in a very real sense we must live beneath the 
level of our true selves until we discover that we are 
the children of God. We are all familiar with the 
story which tells how a poor dissipated man was roused 
to reflection and reformation by overhearing a little boy 
protesting against the cruelty which some children were 
inflicting on a kitten, in these words : " You must not 
hurt it, for it 's God's creature." But a deeper and more 
powerful influence comes into the heart with the assur- 
ance that we are God's sons ; and to have that assur- 
ance we must be " born again." The new birth is the 
doorway into the new relationship, and " to as many as 



THE BOY JESUS. 



15 



receive him, to them does Christ give power [or the 
right] to become the sons of God, even to them that 
believe on his name, which are born not of blood, nor of 
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
This is fundamental. If we have not begun here we have 
not begun at all. We must be born again, and that birth- 
day is the grandest anniversary to us of all the year. 

But further, here be it observed that this conscious- 
ness of God's fatherhood involves in it the obligation 
to be about God's business. Duty springs out of rela- 
tionship, and so the son must render filial service to 
his father. I am aware, indeed, that some would render 
this memorable sentence thus : " Wist ye not that I 
must be in my Father's house ? " But our preference 
here is very decidedly for that translation to which we 
have been so long accustomed, and so taken it furnishes 
a suggestive example for us. The Heavenly Father must 
have our highest love, and our most devoted service. 
When Joseph Neesima was meditating his flight from 
Japan, in order to get the education for which he 
longed, he was held back for a great while by that regard 
and reverence for his earthly parents which Buddhism 
had instilled into him. After a time, however, he found 
some Christian primers from which he learned that he 
had a Father in heaven ; and believing that when He 
called His authority was supreme, the way was opened 
up for his setting out on that perilous but most interest- 
ing enterprise, which finally took him back as a Chris- 
tian teacher to his native land. Now, similar it is with 
every man who comes to the discovery for himself of 
the great fact that through the new birth he has become 
a son of God. Every other relationship becomes hence- 
forth subordinated to that. The Father's business is 
now the supreme end of life, and anything he does is 



16 THE BOY JESUS. 

done by him as a department of that. Here is a test 
that will infallibly reveal to us whether or not we are 
the children of God. Let us apply it honestly, and see 
truly whose we are. Is God's business our constant 
care ; or do we make it merely an appendix to that 
which we regard as our true life-work ? 

Finally, true earnestness comes when we can say, 
u We must be about our Father's business." That is not 
the u must " of external constraint or compulsion, but 
the outburst from within of that which has become irre- 
pressible. It is like the " cannot but " of the Apostles, 
and it is the germ of all that came after in this perfect 
life. Let us not be content with anything short of it in 
ourselves ; and if you desire to know how to attain to it, 
Paul will instruct you in these words : " The love of 
Christ constraineth us ... to live to him who died for 
us and rose again." The effect of our believing percep- 
tion of Christ's love to us in his death will be to con- 
centrate us on this as the one business of our lives. To 
such faith, and such concentration, I call you now ; and 
in the measure in which you obey, there will be new 
happiness in your hearts and new earnestness in your 
lives. 



II. 



THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 

Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
world. — John i. 29. 

Everything which the Evangelists tell us concerning 
John the Baptist is unique. The asceticism of his life 
in the desert ; the startling message with which he 
broke the silence maintained by the spirit of prophecy 
for four hundred years ; the incorruptible sincerity of 
his humility, out of which no allurement could bribe 
him ; the fearless honesty of his words ; and the tragic 
horror of his death, — all combine to give him a pecu- 
liar and distinctive place on the page of Scripture. But 
these things were, after all, only the indications and ac- 
companiments of the singularity of his official position ; 
for, indeed, he stands alone among the servants of God. 
fie came, no doubt, in the spirit and power of Elijah, and 
his dress was not the only thing about him that reminds 
us of the prophet of Gilead ; but yet, take him for all in 
all, there is no one to whom he can be properly com- 
pared. He stood between the Jewish and the Christian 
dispensations, having much that connected him with 
both, and yet belonging exclusively to neither. He had 
more knowledge of the nature of the person and work 
of the Messiah than any of his predecessors among the 

2 



18 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

prophets, and yet " he that is least in the kingdom of 
heaven is greater than he." Thus he is the connecting 
link between the two economies, and his messages ally 
him to them both. 

This is very apparent in those two utterances of his 
which mark the flood-tide of his prophetic inspiration ; 
for when he said of his greater successor, " He shall 
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire," the very 
term " baptize " connects his thought with " the divers 
washings " under the old dispensation, while the words, 
" with the Holy Ghost and with fire," foreherald that 
ministration of the spirit which was ushered in on the 
day of Pentecost. So, again, when he exclaimed, " Be- 
hold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
world ! " the phraseology in which he describes the great 
propitiation of Christ is seen at once to be derived from 
the typical sacrifices with which as the son of a priest he 
was perfectly familiar ; while the mention of " the world " 
gives a wider range to the efficacy of the Atonement than 
the common Jew would have assigned to it, and is the 
prelude of the great commission, " Go ye into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every creature." In 
the former instance it would almost seem that he had 
received a vision of the upper room at the moment when, 
to the disciples assembled in it, there appeared " cloven 
tongues like as of fire, which sat upon each of them." 
In the latter he appears to have had a revelation of the 
uplifted Christ on Calvary draAving all men unto him. 

Thus we have, even from the forerunner of the Lord, 
a clear proclamation of the two great things which he 
was coming to bring, — namely, a sacrifice for human 
guilt, and a cleansing from human pollution ; and it is 
interesting to mark with what equal distinctness these 
stand out in the brief records of the Baptist's ministry. 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 19 



Spiritual regeneration and power given to man by him 
who won them for man through the offering of himself 
a victim for the world's sin ; the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost dispensed by the pierced hands of him who went 
from the cross of Calvary to the throne of heaven, — 
these were the things which John saw in his moments 
of loftiest inspiration ; and in making announcement of 
them he rose above all the prophets who preceded him, 
albeit he did not attain to the elevation of the Apostles 
by whom he was succeeded. 

But now, leaving the singular character and position 
of him whose message these words were, let me fix your 
attention a little more particularly on the words them- 
selves. Do they really mean all that I have indicated ; 
or, in so explaining them, have I been guilty of putting 
into them a significance which is not legitimately there ? 
The question is important by reason of its bearing on 
the great doctrine of the Atonement, and we must en- 
deavor to answer it fairly and honestly. On the one 
hand, some have alleged that the lamb is here used by 
the Baptist simply as an emblem of those personal qual- 
ities of meekness, patience, and gentleness for which 
Jesus was pre-eminent; and on the other, it has been 
maintained that the allusion of John is to that servant 
of Jehovah of whom Isaiah has spoken in the fifty-third 
chapter of his prophecies, as bearing " the sins of many, 5> 
and whom he has described as " brought as a lamb to 
the slaughter." Others still have contended . that the 
expression in my text, without intimating that Jesus is 
the antitype of any particular lamb, — whether that of 
the Passover or of the trespass offering, — does yet de- 
scribe him as the substance of which all the Mosaic 
victims, each from its own particular angle, were but 



20 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

shadows, and so represents him as God's Lamb, u ap- 
pointed and consecrated for the highest work of sacri- 
ficial suffering and death." Now, to me it does not seem 
difficult to decide between these views. If the words 
had been simply, " Behold the Lamb of God," and if 
there had been no Old Testament at all, then we might 
have been contented to accept them as a figurative indi- 
cation of the peaceful meekness of the Lord Jesus ; but 
when he is styled " the Lamb of God which taketh away 
the sin of the world," the case is entirely altered. For 
then we come upon phraseology which, in the Old Testa- 
ment, is connected exclusively with sacrifice ; and it is 
impossible, having a due regard to that fact, to reach 
any other conclusion than that Jesus stands in reality 
to human sin in the same relation as the lamb of sacri- 
fice stood to the iniquities of the congregation of Israel. 
Nor, in adopting that view, is it necessary to maintain 
that John had not in his mind the wonderful prediction 
of Isaiah, to which we have alluded. On the contrary, 
it is, to me, highly probable that he was at the moment 
thinking of that very oracle. We know that he was fa- 
miliar with other utterances of the Evangelical prophet ; 
for when he was required by the Jews to define his own 
position, he did so by quoting from him the words, " The 
voice of one crying in the wilderness, ' Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord.' " It is, therefore, every way likely 
that when he sought to describe the Messiah, he would 
draw from the same source. But the fact, if it be a 
fact, that he drew immediately from Isaiah does not 
imply that there was in his words no reference to the 
sacrificial system of Moses. For behind the predictions 
of the prophet are the book of Leviticus and the history 
of the Jewish nation ; and his language receives all its 
meaning from these sacrificial and historical associations. 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 21 

They suggested to him the material out of which, under 
the guiding Spirit of Ood, he wrought his description of 
the priestly work of the Messiah ; and so John, in appro- 
priating his words, refers, through him, to that without 
which his prediction would have been unintelligible, and 
thus, as one has said, he " condenses the whole sacrifi- 
cial system into one burning word based upon Isaiah's 
oracle touching the suffering servant of Jehovah." 

Thus far all is plain. Jesus Christ is the antitype of 
Old-Testament sacrifice, because " he taketh away sin." 
But what precisely do these words mean ? In the mar- 
gin of the ordinary version we read, " beareth away " 
the sin of the world ; and in that of the revised version it 
is given simply, " beareth the sin." But perhaps the full 
significance of the word is to be had alone by the union 
of both the textual and marginal renderings, for the 
term in the original is the equivalent of a Hebrew word, 
which sometimes denotes the bearing of the punishment 
of sin, and sometimes the making of expiation for sin ; 
and so, as Alford well remarks, " it will in our verse 
bear either of these meanings, or both conjoined, for if 
the Lamb is to suffer the burden of the sins of the 
world, and is to take away sin and its guilt by expia- 
tion, this result must be accomplished by the offering of 
himself." Thus the doctrine which we distil from the 
Baptist's words is that Jesus Christ, by his sacrificial 
death, makes expiation for the world's sin ; and so the 
forerunner of the Lord is in perfect accord with the 
Apostle who said, " Ye were not redeemed with such 
corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the pre- 
cious blood of Christ, as of a lamb, without blemish and 
without spot ; " and with the Apocalyptic elder who de- 
scribed the white-robed company before the throne as 
having " washed their robes, and made them white in 



22 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST 

the blood of the Lamb." Jesus Christ, the holy Lamb 
of God, took on him the load of our sins, and suffered 
even unto death, as if he had been guilty, that we might 
be forgiven ; thus he beareth, and by bearing taketh 
away, the sin of the world. 

Now, if this exposition be correct, we begin to see 
what must be meant by the phrase, " The Lamb of 
God." For an ordinary victim could make no such 
expiation as that which we have just described. In 
vain here is the blood of bulls and of goats ; for the 
only efficacy that ever had was due to its relation to the 
blood of Christ, and in itself, considered apart from 
that, it is worthless. In vain, too, is the offering up of 
a fellow-man, even if he were voluntarily to give himself 
up to death for us ; for his life is already forfeited by 
his own sin, and therefore his death can have in it no 
vicarious merit. Besides, it is against God that we have 
sinned, and only a victim satisfactory to him will meet 
the case. The lamb to be offered must be the Lamb of 
God, — that is, the lamb of his appointment and ap- 
proval. The nations of the earth, like the young Isaac, 
found no -answer to the question, " Where is the lamb 
for a burnt offering ? " But the believing Abrahams 
rested in the assurance that God would provide himself 
a Lamb ; and when the fulness of the time had come, 
lo ! there he is, — having the dignity of deity united to 
the perfection of humanity, — a victim of infinite excel- 
lency whose offering is " the propitiation for the sins of 
the whole world." 

But how was John the Baptist so sure that Jesus of 
Nazareth was this Lamb of God ? Let him answer for 
himself in these words, which are in the immediate 
neighborhood of my text : " I knew him not, but he that 
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 23 



upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and 
remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with 
the Holy Ghost." Thus by the hovering dove-like de- 
scent of the Holy Spirit upon him Jesus was designated 
to John as the Lamb of God ; and on the day of his bap- 
tism he was, as it were, adorned with the garland which 
marked him for the altar. 

Still further, if this be a true description of the mean- 
ing of the phrase, " the Lamb of God," we have no diffi- 
culty in comprehending how it is " the sin of the world " 
that he beareth and taketh away. For the dignity and 
worth of the victim give unlimited sufficiency to his 
atonement, and its efficacy is not confined within the 
boundaries of locality or race, but any man believing in 
him may be saved through him. No sin could be taken 
away except through such a sacrifice ; but no greater 
sacrifice is needed for the taking away of any sin. The 
blessed Redeemer has removed all obstacles from the 
salvation of any man, so far as these lay with the vio- 
lated law of God ; and now all that the sinner has to do 
is to "behold" him with that eye of faith which looks 
with expectant appropriation to him. 

Thus expounded, these words of the Baptist are a 
strong assertion of the doctrine that the Lord Jesus 
Christ offered himself as a true and proper sacrifice for 
the sins of the world. It does not seem to me possible, 
on any fair and rational principle of interpretation, to 
bring anything else out of his language. To say, as 
some have done, that his expression is a mere metaphor, 
drawn from the ritual system of the Jews, is to reverse 
the true state of the case ; for that system was itself the 
metaphor, and the whole drift and purpose of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews is to show that the sacrifices under 
the law were types, figures, or, if you will, metaphors, of 



24 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

the great reality in the sacrifice of Christ. To affirm, 
therefore, that Christ's death was only figuratively a 
sacrifice, is to reverse the relation subsisting between 
the two ; to put the metaphor in the place of the reality, 
and the reality in the place of the metaphor, and so 
to make them both alike shadowy and unsubstantial. 
Nothing can be more apparent, even to the superficial 
reader of the Old Testament, than that the doctrine of 
sacrifice pervades the Mosaic system. Now, as an emi- 
nent expositor has said : " If there is nothing of this in 
the New Testament ; if this is Jewish only, and not 
Christian as well ; if Christ, for instance, is only the 
Lamb of God because of his innocence and purity, and 
not because of his sacrificial death ; if he takes away 
the sin of the world only in the way of summoning and 
enabling men to leave off their sins," (then) "all bonds 
between the New Testament and, at least, the Levitical 
sacrifices of the Old are broken. These last point to 
nothing. They are a huge husk without a kernel ; types 
without their antitype ; shadows, but not the shadows 
of the true ; and thus with no substance following, a 
promise without a performance, an elaborate and enor- 
mous machinery for the effecting of nothing." 1 Thus 
there is no getting rid of this doctrine without setting 
ourselves above the Scriptures, and repudiating or ex- 
plaining away their statements. 

But some one objects that the statements referred to 
seem to run counter to the plainest principles of morality. 
" Can it be just," he asks, " to compel the innocent to 
suffer for the guilty ? " But such a way of putting the 
case, first mis-states it, and then founds a criticism 
on the mis-statement ; for there was no compulsion. 
The Lord Jesus Christ was not dragged unwillingly to 

1 Trench. 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 25 

the Cross. He was a voluntary victim. He laid down 
his life of himself. The necessity that there should be 
an atonement in order to the forgiveness of sin is one 
thing ; the compelling of a particular person to make 
that atonement is quite another. But in the minds of 
most objectors to the doctrine of Scripture on the sub- 
ject, these two things are often confounded. We admit 
the necessity, but we deny the compulsion. A thing may 
be necessary in an emergency ; and though you cannot 
justly couipel any man to do it, yet if one should vol- 
unteer to do it, and successfully carry it through, he 
thereby takes his place among the worthies of the land. 
Now, there is no talk of injustice in such a case ; and 
why should there be any such criticism in the matter of 
the atonement of Christ ? Here was the emergency. 
Man could be redeemed only by the death of a victim 
of a certain character, and the Lord Jesus Christ eagerly 
came forward and offered himself as that victim ; but if 
you praise the hero who sacrificed his own life at the 
helm of the burning ship in order that he might save 
those of the passengers and crew, how can you stand 
chaffering about injustice at the foot of the Cross, or 
refuse to recognize the death of Jesus thereon as the no- 
blest heroism the universe has ever seen ? Either blame 
them both or praise them both ; but if you blame them 
both, then the instinct of humanity is against you, and 
every man would cry out against your utter selfishness. 
Thus that which you could not righteously compel another 
to bear, may be so taken by another upon himself, and 
so borne by him as to prove at once his courage and his 
love ; and every such instance may help to illustrate, on a 
lower level, the sacrifice of Christ ; so that we come back 
with deeper emphasis than ever to the assertion of the 
old truth, that " in him we have redemption, through his 
blood, even the forgiveness of sins." 



26 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

So much, then, for the teaching of the text. Let us now, 
in conclusion, use it briefly for three practical purposes : 

It may serve, in the first place, to direct the sinner 
to the source of salvation. If there be one here this 
evening burdened with a sense of guilt, then I give him 
the direction of the Baptist, " Behold the Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sin of the world." Mark, the sin. 
That is the very thing that is troubling you. Other 
things do not so much distress you ; but the thought 
that you have disobeyed or dishonored God overwhelms 
you. That is the sharpest sting wherewith your con- 
science pierces you, and your most earnest anxiety is to 
have that removed. Here, then, is one who taketh just 
that away. Look unto him, and he will save you. 

Mark, again, u the sin of the world;" not merely 
that of the Jew, or that of the generation which was 
alive when he was crucified, or that of any small section 
of humanity, but that of the world. So you may be sure 
that yours is included. No matter, therefore, who you 
are, or whence you have come, or what you have done, 
there is here salvation for you if you will accept it. 

Mark, again, u he taketh away the sin of the world." 
It is a present thing. He was bearing sin in sacrifice 
even as John spoke the words ; and he is bearing it now 
in intercession before the mercy seat on high. We have 
not to do, therefore, with one who lived and died eighteen 
hundred years ago, and then ceased to have any connec- 
tion with us. We have to do with a living Redeemer, 
of whom it is said that a he is able to save unto the 
uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he 
ever liveth to make intercession for them." We cannot 
" behold " him with the bodily eye, just as Andrew and 
John saw him when he was pointed out to them by the 
Baptist ; but we can recognize the Lamb of God in him 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 27 

precisely as they did, and we can make spiritual appli- 
cation to him for salvation ; and if we do we shall not 
make it in vain. 

But this text may serve, in the second place, to stim- 
ulate the Christian to earnest gratitude. How much 
do we owe our divine Redeemer ? He has taken away 
our sin. He has given us peace with God, and imparted 
to us peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
And he has done all at the sacrifice of himself. Surely, 
then, it becomes each of us to ask, " What shall I ren- 
der unto the Lord for all his benefits ? " The Apoca- 
lyptic seer tells us that he heard multitudinous voices 
singing, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour 
and glory and blessing." We hope to join at length in 
that glad acclaim ; but why should we wait until we are 
in heaven before we begin ? Nay, if we do not begin 
here, it is certain that we shall not join in it there. But 
what is it to join in it here ? Is it merely to employ the 
words ? Nay, verily. It is to have our lives set to the 
key of its celestial music, and thus harmonized into a 
song of which these words are the verbal interpreta- 
tion, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
power," — that is, to have absolute dominion over my 
heart and life ; " and riches," that is, to have the sov- 
ereign disposal of my possessions and belongings ; u and 
wisdom," that is, to have all the wisdom that he has 
given me employed in his service ; " and strength," that 
is, to have my strength of body and mind consecrated 
to him and used for him ; " and honor," that is, to have 
the supreme place in my regard, and to be made the 
depositary of all the honors I may receive on earth ; 
" and glory," that is, to receive all the credit for what 
I have and am and have done ; " and blessing," that is, 



28 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

to be the theme of all my praise, and the object of all 
my gratitude. This is what such a song means now 
and here for you and me. 0h ? let us not make it a 
mere mockery, but stirred again by the contemplation 
of the sacrifice of Christ, let us dedicate ourselves anew 
to his service, and keep ourselves wholly for his glory. 

Finally, this text may serve as a pattern to the 
preacher of the Gospel. Indeed, the whole ministry of 
the Baptist is full of richest suggestiveness in this re- 
gard. He never put himself first. Always he pointed 
away from himself to the Christ. He sought not to 
make adherents to himself, but his peculiar joy was to 
introduce those who thronged around him to his Lord, 
the personal Messiah, the sacrifice for human sin, and 
the Dispenser of the great baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

If he preached repentance, it was because Christ was at 
hand. If he urged baptism, it was but as a symbol of that 
divine ordinance which only Christ could administer. If 
he besought men to flee from the wrath to come, it was 
because that wrath was the wrath of the Lamb, and as 
such all the more terrible. Thus Christ was the back- 
ground of all his utterances, and his great ambition was 
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Now, in 
all this he was an ensample to every preacher of the 
Gospel whose aim ought ever to be to proclaim faithfully 
and earnestly the truth as it is in Jesus, Not to seek a 
new Gospel, but to stand continually at the foot of the 
cross in the spirit of him who sang, — 

" Happy if with my latest breath 
I may but gasp his name, 
Preach him to all, and cry in death, 
Behold, behold the Lamb! " 



III. 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 

An Easter Sermon. 

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which 
are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. — 
Colossians iii. 1. 

This exhortation is based on a fact and a principle. 
The fact is, that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, 
and is now at the right hand of God ; the principle is, that 
faith in that fact ought to affect the estimate which we 
form of the relative value of things on earth and things 
in heaven. I do not intend, this morning, to enter upon 
the proof of the fact, inasmuch as on former occasions of 
this sort I have gone fully into the consideration of the 
evidence by which it is established. But what about 
the principle which the Apostle has here connected with 
the fact ? Probably there is no one here to-day who 
thinks either of doubting or denying that Jesus actually 
did rise from the dead ; but how many, if I should not 
rather say how few, of us have gone on a step farther 
and asked if it be true that Jesus rose again, what 
then ? Can I continue to live as if no such event had 
occurred ? Has no light been shed by it on my duty 
and my destiny ? Or does it not rather open up to me 
new views, supply me with new motives, and give me 
new inspiration, so that the moment I grasp it, I begin 



30 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 

to live for other objects than those which formerly 
engrossed my whole attention ? It is one thing to have 
a doctrine, or a fact, as an article in our creed, and 
another to have it as a power in our lives; and so to-day, 
when the Resurrection of Christ is uppermost in all our 
minds, we may profitably occupy ourselves with the con- 
sideration of the question, how our belief in that great 
unique fact in the history of our race ought to affect 
our characters and lives upon the earth. Accepting it 
as a fact that Jesus Christ died and rose again from 
the dead, what ought to be the practical outcome of our 
belief in it on our present earthly life ? 

Now, in answer to this inquiry I remark that an 
intelligent belief in the Resurrection of Christ ought 
to give us a new ambition in life. Many would decry 
ambition as if it were in itself and always an evil thing. 
But it is a natural principle in the human soul, and 
becomes evil only when it is directed to an improper 
object. The ivy will climb upwards, if only it can but 
lay hold on some tall object to which it may adhere ; but 
if no such support presents itself, it will creep ignomini- 
ously along the ground. Like it, ambition will mount 
heavenward, if it be fixed upon some heavenly thing; 
but left to itself, it will trail along the earth. But 
because it may degenerate into one of the worst of things, 
we must not forget that rightly directed it may become 
one of the best. Take ambition out of the heart and 
you paralyze the life ; for then there will be no plan or 
purpose, no concentration of energy, no subordination 
of means to ends, no ardor, and no enthusiasm in the 
soul of the man. Bad, therefore, as ambition is in some 
men, they would I verily believe be worse if they had 
none. For the evil is not in the existence but rather in 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 



31 



the misdirection of ambition. Its range is most fre- 
quently bounded by the horizon of time and sense. Its 
object is too generally some earthly thing, such as riches, 
honor, pleasure, fame, power, and the like. Now that 
would be rational enough, if there were no revelation of 
a future life, or if the present state were proved to 
have no sort of connection with that which is to come. 
There is no resisting Paul's logic when he says, as an 
inference from these premises, " Let us eat and drink, 
for to-morrow we die." But the Resurrection of Christ 
and his ascension into glory have so far lifted for 
us the veil that conceals the future as to let us see 
the certainty of the life to come, and the intimate 
relation which exists between our character here and our 
destiny hereafter. Thereby, therefore, they have opened 
up a new field for our ambition and stirred us up to lay 
hold on eternal life. That empty grave has demon- 
strated that death is not non-existence. Usually we 
look only on one side of death, and so we are tempted 
to think of it as a cessation of life ; but here we are 
permitted to catch some glimpses of the other side, 
and we learn that in the case of the Christian it is 
only the passing from one form of life into a higher. 
When the chrysalis has become the butterfly, if we were 
to look only at the caterpillar carcass which it has left 
behind, we might imagine that the insect had simply 
ceased to be ; when the bird has burst the shell, if we 
were to regard only the fragments of its former abode, 
we might be apt to think that the egg and its inmate 
had been destroyed together ; but in both cases what has 
occurred has been that one form of life has been ex- 
changed for another which yet is only an outgrowth and 
development of the former. There has been a death in 
the putting off of an old body, and a birth in the taking 



32 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 

on of a new and higher kind of life. Now, it is similar 
with man : when you look at a dead body you are apt to 
say that all is over ; but when you take in the full sig- 
nificance of the Resurrection of Christ, as not the 
coming of the Lord back to the life of earth but his 
going forward to a new and more glorious form of life 
adapted to the heavenly state, you discover that what 
on the earthly side is a death, is on the other side of 
it a birth into a higher form of human existence. 

But this is not all. If the Resurrection revealed only 
the fact of future existence, without showing us that 
there is any intimate relation between the life that now 
is and that which is to come, it is conceivable that a 
belief in it might not operate much in changing or 
moulding our present character. But when we view 
it in connection with the ascension of Christ into 
heaven and with the statements which he and his 
Apostles have made upon the subject, we become con- 
vinced that the position which we are to occupy hereafter 
will be fixed, not in any arbitrary and capricious manner, 
but by the character which we have formed and the 
work which we have done here. In the Resurrection 
body of the Lord, there were the marks of his sacrificial 
death, and the height of his exaltation now is propor- 
tioned to the depth of his voluntary humiliation when 
he was on earth. The cross was the precursor of the 
crown ; and just in so far as we approach to the like- 
ness of our Lord Jesus here, we shall attain to the 
measure of his glory hereafter. The present is the 
embryo of the future ; and what I attain to on earth 
is the germ of that which I shall be in the world 
beyond. Now if these things be so, what an influence 
they ought to have on our ambition ? Here is the field 
of eternity opened up before us, and as the brightest 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 



33 



glory there, the throne of Christ is unveiled to our 
enraptured gaze. We are assured also that on that 
throne we may have a seat, and that in the royalty of the 
king to whom of right it belongs we may have a share, 
if only through faith in him we employ the present life 
in acquiring and maintaining a character like his. 

Now, in the light of considerations like these, do not 
merely earthly objects fall into a secondary and subor- 
dinate position ? No longer do they appear to be ends 
which we may seek for themselves alone ; but they 
become valuable to us only as means in the right and 
Christian use of which we may attain to the higher end 
of conformity to the image of Christ. Riches must be 
left behind us when we leave the body ; earthly honor is 
for this life alone ; pleasure is but as " the lightning, 
which doth cease to be ere one can say, It lightens ; " 
but character remains, and only that character which is 
Christ-like on earth shall have Christ's honor on high. 
Salvation is not mere deliverance from punishment, — 
it is the attainment and development of holiness ; and 
earthly things are valuable only in so far as they can 
be made to minister to that, because the measure of 
our attainment here will be the measure of our glory 
hereafter. 

Here, then, is an ambition worthy of immortal beings. 
Let me fire you with it now. By the empty sepulchre of 
the Lord, all other questions merge into these vital in- 
quiries, What am I ? What sort of a resurrection am I 
preparing for myself ? For I am living, I must die, and 
I, yes, I am to rise again with my eternal state rooted in 
and growing out of my present character. Thus even as 
a lens concentrates the rays of the sun into one burning- 
spot, so by faith in the Redeemer's Resurrection the whole 
infinitude of eternity is focussed for each believer on the 

3 



34 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 

narrow and intense point of the present life, and he feels 
himself constrained to live not unto himself, but unto Him 
who died for him and rose again : not for things on the 
earth, but for those things that are above ; not for things 
that are material, but for those that are spiritual and 
divine. 

I remark, in the second place, that an intelligent 
belief in the fact that Christ has risen from the dead 
ought to give us a new support through life. Writing 
to the Corinthians, Paul uses these words regarding the 
resurrection of Christians as made sure by that of Christ : 
" If the dead rise not at all, why stand we in jeopardy 
every hour ? " And again he asks : " If after the man- 
ner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what 
advantageth it me if the dead rise not ? " So, also, at 
the conclusion of his great argument, and as the practi- 
cal inference from the whole chapter, he says : " There- 
fore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch 
as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." 
In the same strain he says elsewhere : " Knowing that 
he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us 
also by Jesus, and shall present us with you, for which 
cause we faint not." Once more he declares that " If 
we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him ; " 
and the words, " Remember that Jesus Christ, of the 
seed of David, was raised from the dead," which occur 
in the immediate context, show that when he spoke of 
reigning with Christ, he was thinking of that as one 
result of his Resurrection. 

But we are not left merely to argue that this practical 
influence is a direct result of Christ's Resurrection ; we 
see it actually producing this effect in the case of 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 



35 



the Apostles. The most casual reader of the Gospels 
and the Acts of the Apostles cannot but remark tiiat 
there is a wonderful difference between the dispositions 
and actions of the same Apostles before and after the 
Resurrection of their Lord. Prior to that event they 
were timid, halting, irresolute, clinging to the hope of 
earthly glory, and seeking worldly security. After it they 
were brave, determined, spiritual, heroic. Peter no more 
seeks self-preservation in denying his Master ; but before 
rulers and councillors, and at the risk of imprisonment 
and death, he proclaims the truth to all. And as it was 
with him, so it was with the others. 

Now, how shall we account for that ? By the de- 
scent of the Holy Spirit, you reply. And you answer 
correctly ; but then the Holy Spirit works by means, 
and the means through which, in this case, he accom- 
plished this wondrous transformation was their belief 
in and realization of the fact that Jesus had risen 
from the dead. He was a living person ; he was not 
now to them as one dead. They had seen him ; they 
knew that they should see him again, and should be 
received by him at last as the result of their steadfast- 
ness. So they faced every danger at his bidding. Now, 
if we have anything like an intelligent realization of the 
great fact which this day commemorates, the same effect 
should be produced on us ; yet I fear that it is just here 
that most of us egregiously fail. Our faith takes up this 
marvellous event simply as one that occurred eighteen 
hundred years ago. We look on it as something far 
away from us ; and we do not see its connection with 
ourselves here and now, because we forget that he who 
then rose from the dead still lives and reigns as Lord. 
When we think of Jesus now, are we conscious of mak- 
ing any difference in our minds between his present 



36 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 



mode of existence and relation to us, and those of our 
fellow-men who have gone into the world unseen ; or 
is it not rather the case with many of us that our idea 
regarding him is very much like that which we have of 
some departed relative of our own ? I press these ques- 
tions, for they touch the very quick of the subject here, 
and may reveal to us the secret of much of our spiritual 
weakness. One writes of those " dead but sceptred 
sov'rans whose spirits rule us from their urns ; " and it 
is to be feared that multitudes place Jesus simply at the 
head of these. But to think of him thus is not to be- 
lieve in and realize his Resurrection. He does not rule 
us from an urn. He rules us from a throne, whereon 
he sits endowed with "the power of an endless life." 
" Being raised from the dead he dieth no more ; death 
hath no more dominion over him." So he lives still, 
the same as he was during those forty days between his 
Resurrection and ascension ; not like the departed dead, 
who live as spirits disembodied, but as he who alone 
could say, " I am he that liveth, and was dead, and be- 
hold I am alive for evermore." He lives as near us as 
he was when he appeared to Mary, to Thomas, to the 
disciples on the shore of the Galilean lake, and to Paul 
on the way to Damascus. Ah ! if we but dwelt on this 
aspect of the matter, what a power would come from 
the risen Lord to vitalize and ennoble all our conduct, 
and to sustain us under all difficulty and trial ! We 
cannot long continue to live contrary to the world's 
maxims and fashions if we are not upheld by a strength 
that is not of the earth. We must have meat to eat of 
which the world knows not. We must be able in time 
of conflict and weariness to fall back upon some source 
of support which is higher than the world can furnish ; 
and that is opened up to us by the Resurrection of our 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 



37 



Lord, for that tells us that he who conquered death 
lives yet as our friend, and can and will help us in 
every time of need. I have read of a tree in a Scottish 
valley which was planted by the side of a little brook, 
where there was no kindly soil in which it could spread 
its roots, and by which it could be nourished. For a 
long time it looked stunted and unhealthy ; but at 
length, by what the writer who describes it calls " a 
wonderful vegetable instinct," it sent out a shoot along 
a narrow bridge which had been rudely made for the 
sheep, and this, rooting itself in the rich loam which it 
found in the opposite bank, enabled it to draw sap there- 
from, so that it speedily became strong and vigorous. 
Now, what that tiny bridge was to the tree, that in the 
higher realm of spiritual life the Resurrection of Christ 
is to the believer. The Christian's life on earth is 
rooted in unkindly soil, and if it can find no better 
nutriment than that can furnish, it must droop and 
wither ; but taught by the Holy Spirit it sends, through 
faith in the Resurrection of Christ, a rootlet across the 
river into the better land, whence it draws all it needs 
to keep it fresh and fruitful. 

But I remark, in the third place, that an intelligent 
belief in the fact of the Resurrection of Christ ought 
to give us comfort when we are bereaved of Christian 
friends, and to give us calmness in the contemplation of 
our own departure from the world. How unutterably 
dark must have been the desolation of the mourner's 
heart before life and immortality had been brought to 
light by the Gospel ! The classical scholar finds few 
passages in ancient literature so full of sadness as those 
in which Cicero laments the death of Tullia, his daugh- 
ter. But now, though the Christian parent who is in 



38 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 



circumstances similar to his, sorrows, yet he sorrows 
" in hope ; " and his hope is that he shall see his loved 
one again, and their hearts shall rejoice. " Now is 
Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits 
of them that slept." " Them that sleep in Jesus will 
God bring with him." Sore is the heart-wrench as the 
beloved object is torn from our embrace ; keen is the 
pang of separation. But the angel of the Resurrection 
forbids us to linger in the place of sepulture, or to " seek 
the living among the dead." He tells us that our loved 
ones are not there. He points upward, and affirms that 
they are spiritually with the risen Lord. He points for- 
ward, and assures us that they shall rise again ; and so 
even as the weeping Mary thrilled with glad emotion at 
the sound of the well-remembered voice, the believing 
mourner is sustained and soothed as he sings, in words 
familiar to every Scottish boy, — 

" The saints of God, from death set free, 
With joy shall mount on high ; 
The heavenly hosts, with praises loud, 
Shall meet them in the sky. 

" Together to their Father's house 
With joyful hearts they go, 
And dwell forever with the Lord 
Beyond the reach of woe. 

" A few short years of evil passed, 
We reach the happy shore, 
Where death-divided friends at last 
Shall meet to part no more." 

Then, again, why should we fear death for ourselves, 
since Christ has risen ? That victory over death 
achieved by Christ has changed the relation of death 
to all Christ's people. He is no longer what he was, 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 



£9 



even to the saints before the advent. Some of them, 
indeed, reached a lofty mountain-top of faith, from 
which they saw a glimpse of the truth ; but the many 
were still in darkness. But Christ's Resurrection 
brought us light. For his people's sake, Christ, when 
he died, went into the domain of the King of Terrors, 
where he grappled with and overcame the grim mon- 
arch ; and whence the conqueror brought him as a 
captive slave, to be employed as the porter in his 
palace in opening the door for his friends into the 
chamber of his presence. The King of Terrors is now 
the servant of Christ ; and so he may well be said to be 
" abolished " for those who belong to Christ's house- 
hold. The grave thus illumined becomes but the robing- 
room for heaven, where we put off the garment of cor- 
ruption and put on our incorruptible attire. Between 
the two, indeed, the putting off of the one and the put- 
ting on of the other, there may be a long interval ; but 
it will not seem long, because throughout it the spirit of 
the believer shall be "at home with the Lord." So, if 
we but receive and rest on Christ and live for him, we 
need not fear to die, for now since Christ has risen, — 

" Death seemeth but a covered way, 
Which opens into light; 
Wherein no blinded child can stray 
Beyond the Father's sight." 

Many other points about the Resurrection might be 
specified and illustrated ; but of design, to-day, I have 
waived all consideration of them, that I might set the 
more distinctly before you its practical bearing on pres- 
ent character and life. It is in vain that we seek to keep 
a Lord's Day in every week, if on all the other days the 
Resurrection of Christ has no influence on our conduct. 



40 



RISEN WITH CHRIST. 



It is to no purpose that we keep an Easter Day in every 
year, if at all other times we forget that Christ is risen, 
and live as if his body were still in Joseph's tomb ; and 
my discourse at this time will not be altogether unblessed 
if it only rouse you to reflect on the effect which your faith 
in the fact that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead 
should have on your daily lives. Go, then, from this 
house, to-day, not to levity and frivolity, not to ex- 
change complimentary commonplaces with each other, 
or to indulge in aimless day-dreaming by yourselves, 
but to ponder these questions : If it be true that Christ 
has risen from the dead, am I what I ought to be ; or 
am I living as I ought to live ? Have I risen with 
Christ, and am I seeking, as the result of that, to walk 
in newness of life ? 



IV. 



EARLY PIETY. 

And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. 
1 Samuel iii. 8. 

Many things in the early history of Samuel combine 
to give it that wonderful charm by which it fascinates 
every reader. At the very opening of the book our 
sympathy is at once enlisted on the side of Hannah by 
the rehearsal of the indignities to which she was sub- 
jected ; and when at length the prayer which she offered 
with tears at the gate of the tabernacle is answered, 
and she takes the little one whom she had received from 
God, and gives him back to God for his service in His 
house, and leaves him there, we join most heartily with 
her in that grateful song which formed the ground-work 
of the Virgin's Magnificat over the birth of the Messiah, 
and which has given expression to the gladness of 
motherhood in every after day. 

Then in spite of the one dark shadow resting on his 
character, because of his over-indulgence of his sons, we 
have a very tender interest in the venerable Eli, and can 
well understand why he took so kindly to the prattling 
boy at his feet, and allowed him in his tiny ephod to be to 
him a kind of acolyte as he " ministered before the Lord. " 
The disappointment which he had experienced in his own 
sons sought to solace itself in the childish attentions and 



42 EARLY PIETY. 

simple piety of his little companion, and so he lavished on 
him the love of his heart, and we love him for loving 
Samuel. 

And who can help being attracted by the boy himself ? 
He makes no fuss over being left by his mother away 
from home in Shiloh, for she had trained him to look 
upon that as the special honor as well as the peculiar 
service of his life ; and he went forward to it with a 
real joy, which held him up through his daily duties. 
Then on those annual red-letter days so long anticipated 
before they came and so fondly looked back upon after 
they had gone, when his mother came and clothed him 
with the new coat, into every stitch of which she had 
sewed her love, and left him again with wistful affec- 
tion but with no regrets, we feel for her a new admiration 
and have in him a deeper interest, which increases as 
we watch him tripping day by day at Eli's feet and 
ministering before him unto the Lord. 

But the first section of the story has its climax in the 
incident from the account of which my text is taken. It 
was night in the tabernacle. The little boy had been long 
asleep ; the aged priest himself had been for hours in bed ; 
and the sacred light in the holy place was burning low, 
betokening that the morning was not far away. It was 
in fact in Nature — as it was just then also in the history 
of Israel — the darkest hour before the dawning of a new 
day, when, startled by the hearing of his name, the little 
Samuel, with an alacrity that shows how ready he always 
was to answer Eli's call, rose from his couch and went to 
the bedside of the aged priest, and said, " Here am I." 
But the venerable man had not spoken, and bade him 
lie down again. A second time he went with the 
same impression, and received the same reply. But 
when he went a third time, it flashed into the mind 



EARLY PIETY. 



43 



of Eli that God had called the child ; and he enjoined 
him if the voice should come again to make this reve- 
rent reply, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." 
Following that injunction, the boy Samuel received his 
first direct and special communication from Jehovah, 
and entered there and then into " the goodly fellowship 
of the prophets." The message with which he was 
intrusted must have wrung his heart with sadness, for 
it told of the extinction of the family of his venerable 
instructor ; but it had to be delivered, and when it began 
to be fulfilled, " all Israel knew that Samuel was estab- 
lished to be a prophet of the Lord." 

Now, of course this was a special call to a special 
office, and we cannot reason from it in every particular 
to our common and ordinary experience. Nevertheless, 
there is enough of similarity between what is here 
recorded and the procedure of God in the calling of 
his people generally to himself, to warrant us from this 
text to speak of the piety of children, and the proper 
treatment of it by the grown-up people under whose care 
they are. 

With that object in view, then, let me remark, in 
the first place, that God frequently calls his people 
in their childhood. We have such cases in the Holy 
Scriptures, as those of Daniel, Jeremiah, Timothy, 
and others, who were, as the sacred writer phrases it, 
" sanctified to the Lord from their birth;" and the 
annals of Christian biography are rich in the records 
of many who so grew up in the knowledge and love of 
the Saviour that neither they themselves nor those 
around them could tell when they entered upon the 
path of life. Their piety seemed to be almost coeval 
with their birth. It grew with their growth, and 



44 



EARLY PIETY. 



strengthened with their strength, so that it could be 
said of them as it is here of Samuel, that "they grew 
on and were in favour both with the Lord and also with 
men." Indeed, as I read the Sacred Scriptures, and 
ponder over the fact that throughout their pages the 
promise is to believers and their children, I reach the 
conviction that the ideal of home-training which they 
set before us is that we should seek by prayer and 
patience and precept and godly example so to bring up 
our children that the progress of piety in them shall 
be like the dawning of the morning or the opening of 
the petals of a flower to the sunshine, — a thing so 
gradual in its on-coming that we can hardly tell when 
it begins or what its stages are, but can only say it 
is there. I do not deny the necessity of the new birth, 
for the law is universal, " Except a man be born again 
he cannot see the kingdom of God. " But I speak now 
of the manifestation of the new life. Only grant me 
that the new birth may be away back in the earliest 
years, and then the development of the new life will be 
largely a matter of unconsciousness to the child, and 
will not be marked by anything like crisis. 

Now, that, as it seems to me, is the ideal, after the 
attainment of which in the case of all the members of 
their families Christians are to pray and labor. I do 
not mean to assert that godly parents are invariably 
blessed with godly children ; for the case of Eli here is 
an evidence to the contrary. But that case was largely 
the result of Eli's own faultiness; and though we must 
admit the existence of many other instances, we must 
still affirm that, as a general rule, Christian parents 
are warranted to expect that if they use the appointed 
means their children will so grow up within the king- 
dom of Christ that it shall be true of them that they 



EARLY PIETY. 



45 



never remember the time when they did not seek to 
serve the Lord. 

The well-known treatise by Dr. Bushnell on Chris- 
tian Nurture may have pushed this principle in cer- 
tain directions a little too far; but there is no doubt 
in my mind of the soundness of the principle itself, 
and the excess into which here and there he ran 
with it, may be accounted for by the fact that, as ad- 
vocated by him, it was a reaction from the opinion 
largely prevalent in New England in his earlier days, 
which seemed to cast suspicion on all piety that did 
not begin in the shock of a violent crisis, and go 
through all the distinct and well-defined stages of 
awakening, contrition, and conversion. The doctrine 
of depravity was held in such a way as to imply that 
even the children of Christian households must grow 
up in sin, and that they could not become the called of 
God, except through a spiritual upheaval as real if not 
perhaps as great as that which marked the conversion 
of Paul. 

With such a state of things around him Bushnell 
may be excused for the lengths to which he carried 
the principle which he enunciated; but although his 
advocacy of it brought it very prominently before the 
minds of the Christians of his day, it was not in it- 
self a new principle. It was as old as the epistles of 
Paul and the teachings of our Lord himself, and it 
has found a place in the confessions of many of the 
churches. We need, of course, to state it guardedly 
and with caution. On the one hand, we must admit 
that grace does not run in the blood. Piety is not 
a mere matter of heredity, and we have no right to 
anticipate that simply because we are believers in 
Jesus our children will grow up into that faith with- 



46 



EARLY PIETY. 



out any effort of our own. But on the other hand, 
we must distinctly recognize that there is such a 
thing as piety in childhood, and parents are enctmraged 
to hope for its appearance in their offspring, provided 
they will use the means which God has authorized and 
appointed for its development. The church is to in- 
crease by the nurture of the children who are born within 
it, as well as by the conversion of those grown up per- 
sons who have been all along outside of its pale ; and the 
true ideal of a Christian household is when all the chil- 
dren in it grow up into the love and service* of Christ 
as naturally as they do into the likings and dislikings 
of their parents in other and less important respects. 

Do not say that such a thing is impossible, for many 
of God's most eminent saints have had just such an 
early history ; and every pastor can speak of cases, the 
genuineness of which has been attested by life-long 
devotion to Christ, and which were precisely of the 
same sort. "How long have you felt as you now 
describe? " said a minister to a boy of fourteen who 
was seeking admission into the church. "All my 
life, " was the prompt and open-hearted answer. " And 
when did you begin to have these experiences? " said 
the same pastor to another member of the same house- 
hold at a separate interview. " I never began to have 
them, " was the naive reply, " I have had them always ; " 
and the thrill which vibrated in that minister's heart 
as he heard the words was all the more ecstatic because 
the children were his own. 

Do not say either that all piety must be discredited 
which cannot tell the day of conversion ; for if you do, 
you will invalidate the genuineness of the Christianity 
of many who have adorned the doctrine of God their 
Saviour by most consistent lives, and are to-day in 



EARLY PIETY. 



47 



places of honor and usefulness in the church. Nor 
let yourselves be tempted to object that such childish 
piety must needs be short-lived, for Christ always 
keeps a firm hold of his own; and after forty years' 
experience in the pastorate I deliberately affirm that 
the stability of those who enter the ranks of church 
membership in early days is, to say the very least, equal 
to that of those who make their confession in maturer 
years. I know that there comes a time to every soul 
when the traditional faith of childhood has to be 
exchanged for the personal conviction of manhood ; and 
that in days of un settlement like those in which we 
live, that time is likely to prove one of great anxiety. 
But still the experience of the effects of their child- 
hood's faith is not a tradition. That is a part of their 
own personal histoiw, and with that it is easier for 
them to keep hold of the faith than it would be without 
it. There may be some, I believe that there are some, 
who lose their faith in spite of their early experience. 
But they do so with regret, like that of him who 
wrote, — 

" It was a childish ignorance, 
But now 't is little joy 
To know I 'm farther off from heaven 
Than when I was a boy." 

And to counterbalance these there are many more, who, 
after being tossed to and fro upon the sea of doubt, 
come back at length to their old anchorage in the faith 
of their childhood. Therefore, let there be no ungen- 
erous suspicions of the genuineness of the piety of 
children, and no dark forebodings of its lack of perma- 
nence. God has often moved upon the hearts of little 
ones, and we should labor and pray that the young 



48 



EARLY PIETY. 



people of our homes and of our churches may grow up 
from their earliest years in the love and service of the 
Lord Jesus. 

But now let us pass on to consider, in the second 
place, what those marks are by which we may per- 
ceive that God has called a child. And here we must 
begin negatively that we may come at length to a more 
definite, positive conclusion. Let it be remembered, 
therefore, that I am speaking of the piety of children, 
and that we must not expect to find in that quali- 
ties which belong to maturer life. For example, we 
should not look in a child for such a sense of guilt as 
we find in those who, after years spent in sin, have 
been brought to a knowledge of their danger, and have 
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before them 
in the Gospel. When I go over to the Cremorne Mis- 
sion, or go down to the Discharged Convicts' Home, 
or go up to the Christian Home for Intemperate Men, 
and listen to the testimonies which are given there, I 
hear from the inmates of these institutions a great deal 
of confession of sin. I hear much too of former help- 
lessness, and I am profoundly stirred by the song 
which celebrates the praise of Christ for the great 
deliverance which he has wrought out both for them 
and in them. But all those things would be unnatural 
in a child who has known nothing save the sheltering 
protection and holy influences of a Christian household. 
You would call the testimony of such an one fictitious 
if he began to speak of sin, as, for example, Augustine 
speaks of it in his Confessions. For a similar reason 
you would not credit the rehearsal by such a child of 
anything like such a conversion as that of Charles 
Finney, or that of Adoniram Judson. A child is a 



EARLY PIETY. 



49 



child, and his piety will show itself in a way natural 
to himself, even as he has his own childish fashion of 
manifesting his love and reverence for his parents. 
His heart will be attracted by Jesus before it will be 
repelled by sin, and his horror of sin will be the 
result of his love of the Lord rather than the impel- 
ling motive that determines him to make application 
unto Christ. 

Then again, we need not expect in a child a well- 
formulated system of Christian doctrine. That may 
come in later life, or it may not. Opinions differ as 
to whether it is desirable at any age, though for my 
own part I have no hesitation in saying that I regard 
it as highly desirable, especially in days like these; 
but still it is not to be looked for in a child. His 
piety is of the heart rather than of the head, and it 
may be recognized by the presence of these three things : 
first, a tender love for the Saviour, which is founded on 
the simple story of his love to men, and which delights 
to dwell on his winning words and kindly deeds and 
sacrificial death; second, a sensitiveness of conscience, 
which shrinks from doing anything that Christ would 
disapprove, and is eager to do always those things that 
please him. Of this conscientiousness the spring is 
not fear, but love; not the terror of punishment, but 
the desire to give delight to Christ. And third, a keen 
relish for the Gospel narratives, together with a simple 
trust in prayer. When your child speaks to you 
again and again with delight of Jesus and his love, or 
in simple and direct language, which has in it the ring 
of truth, tells you that this or that course of conduct 
has been taken by him because Jesus would rather 
have it so ; or is seen by you to carry troublous things 
to Jesus in prayer, — then I think you may conclude 

4 



50 EARLY PIETY 

that God has called him, and may see the beginning of 
the answer to your sprayers regarding him. You do 
not ask that the earliest letter which your boy writes 
to you should be as beautiful in penmanship, as correct 
in spelling, as elegant in style, as full of thought as 
those which you are receiving from correspondents who 
have had a collegiate education and a large experience. 
It is enough that it is legible and true and genuine. 
You do not want in it the presentation of sentiments 
which a master has dictated, or the utterance of things 
which he thinks may evoke your approbation, though 
at the moment he feels nothing of them all; but you 
are content, yea delighted, with it simply because it is 
his own, and all so like himself. So piety must always 
have the stamp of individuality, and a child's piety 
cannot but be childlike. It would not be real if it 
were anything else. But it is piety none the less, 
and it reveals its presence by the steadiness of its love 
and obedience of Christ. 

What then ? The question now becomes, and this 
is the third head of my discourse, how we are to 
treat those children whom we thus recognize that 
God has called. Now here the first thing to be said 
is that we must be on our guard against causing them 
to stumble by our own inconsistency. Example is 
more powerful than precept. Little eyes are very 
sharp, and see a great deal more than they often get 
credit for. They are particularly quick in marking 
everything that is out of keeping with the professed 
principles of the man; and if our children once get the 
idea that in our inmost hearts we have no regard for 
that which by our words we recommend to them, 
they will very soon cease to be moved by our exhorta- 



EARLY PIETY. 



51 



tions. If the injunctions point in one direction, and 
the life goes in another, they will ultimately follow the 
life, however much for a time they may have been 
moved by the appeals. The sight of any of those 
marks of childish piety, therefore, should make those 
round about the little one more than usually careful 
in their conduct and conversation, lest they should 
come within the sweep of the Master's words : " Whoso 
shall cause one of these little ones to stumble, it were 
better for him that a millstone were hanged about his 
neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the 
sea." 

Again we must beware of doing or saying anything 
that would make light of their experience. We must 
not bid them " Go lie down again. " We must not 
say to them that they are as yet too young to think 
or speak of such sacred things, and that they had 
better take no more heed to them until they are older. 
Above all, we must not ridicule their sentiments, or 
laugh at their modes of expressing themselves. We 
must not hold them back in any of these ways from 
the Saviour, but rather gladly suffer them to go unto 
him, that they may learn of him. Nor is this mere 
negative treatment enough. We ought in every possible 
way to encourage them to open their hearts and minds to 
the teachings of the Lord Jesus in his Word. We 
should endeavor to bring them to say to him, " Speak, 
Lord, for thy servant heareth. " For all this the respon- 
sibility primarily rests on the parents ; and that they may 
rise to their obligations, they should seek to be much 
with their children, and to cultivate their confidence. 
It is sad to think that often the father and mother are 
those who know least about their own children, and the 
reason of that is because they are very seldom with 



52 EARLY PIETY. 

them. They see little or nothing of them. They 
rarely speak to them except in the most casual way 
about anything, much less about Christ and his salva- 
tion, and they excuse themselves by pleading the claims 
of business and the demands of society. But what is 
a parent's business if not to look after the training of 
his children; and what society ought to be preferred 
by a parent to that of his own children? Many years 
ago I read a sermon by the late Dr. Raleigh of London 
from the text in Job, " When my children were about 
me," and I have never forgotten the force with which 
he illustrated the first head of his discourse, which he 
thus announced : " Wlien our children are children they 
should be about us." Oh! if Christian parents would 
only realize that more, they would be more frequently 
gladdened by the sight of the piety of their chil- 
dren. But either they keep themselves so engaged 
that they see nothing of their children, or they send 
the children away from home altogether ; and so they 
become virtual strangers to each other, and drift away 
apart through life in opposite directions. If you wish 
God to call your children, you must get to know 
them yourselves ; and when you see that he has called 
them, you ought to go with them into the closet, and 
say with them and for them, " Speak, Lord, for thy 
servants hear." 

But the church also shares the responsibility in this 
matter with the parents. The pastor ought to make a 
point of knowing the children of his flock as far as may 
be, that they may come to him with all confidence, and 
may not be afraid to tell him all that is in their hearts. 
He must not neglect them in the public ministrations, 
but seek in all his discourses to speak in such a way as 
shall interest the youngest as much as the oldest of his 



EARLY PIETY. 



53 



hearers, and he will do that best by keeping as close as 
possible to the exposition and illustration of the his- 
torical portions of the word of God. 

But the members of the church ought to realize that 
they also have a duty to perform in this regard. The 
children of the church ought to be under the watch and 
care of the church, and here is the raison d'etre for the 
Church Sunday-school. In the outset of its history 
indeed, under Robert Raikes a hundred years ago, the 
Sunday-School was a purely missionary institution. It 
was designed for the instruction of the children of the 
careless and the godless. But as the years have rolled 
on, we have come to look on it as not merely missionary 
for the inbringing of those outside of the church, but 
also educational for the upbringing of those within the 
church. And I suppose that each of us is conscious in 
his own history of a change like that which has come 
over the church as a whole. At all events I remember 
that when first I became a Sabbath-school teacher, I 
said, with some enthusiasm, "Church members ought 
to teach their own children. I will have nothing to do 
with them ; but I will go to the children of £ the igno- 
rant and them that are out of the way, ' and seek to 
instruct them." And I acted on that principle for 
years. But when I became a pastor, and was con- 
stantly receiving children in the name of Christ in bap- 
tism, I saw at once that the church, being a party to 
the administration of that ordinance, had a responsi- 
bility resting on her in regard to the children to whom 
it was administered, and ought to take some part in 
their religious training. 

But the responsibility of the church as a whole is 
that of each of her members, and that being admitted, 
no better way of meeting it has been devised than 



54 EARLY PIETY. 

that afforded by the Sunday-school. It does not take 
the place of the parents, or remove the work out of 
their hands; but it comes to their assistance, and 
rightly improved by them, it may be of immense 
advantage. For the lesson, especially now when it 
is uniform for all classes, may become the religious 
theme for the week in the home. The Sabbath will 
thus give the keynote to all the other days, and 
there need never be any hesitation about referring 
to that in the study of which all are alike engaged. 
Am I wrong, my brethren, in affirming that if all 
parents were to work thus along with the Sunday- 
school they would more frequently see in their children 
the evidence that God had called them ? And when 
they saw that evidence, they would find in the Sunday 
teacher, next only to the pastor, their most effective 
and interested ally in securing the desired result. 

But now I must leave these thoughts with you, and 
ask you to ponder them prayerfully, that you may see 
what God would have you individually do in this 
important matter. Let the pastor realize how much 
rests on him; let parents take to themselves the 
hints which have been furnished them; let the Sun- 
day-school teachers note how honorable their position 
is in being intrusted by the church with the duty of 
instructing the children in her name; let church 
members generally observe that as the teachers are 
doing work as their representatives, they ought to be 
sustained by their prayers, encouraged by their grati- 
tude, and furnished with the means of carrying on the 
work by their liberality; and let the dear children 
themselves give heed to the meaning of all this effort 
on our part to lead them to J esus. By your parents, 



EARLY PIETY. 



55 



by your pastor, by your teacher, the Lord is calling you 
just as truly as he did Samuel here. What answer 
will you give him ? Away back among the earliest 
memories of my childhood I see at this moment a 
beautiful picture in my mother's Bible. It was an 
engraving of Sir Joshua Reynolds's great painting 
representing little Samuel, in the undress of the night, 
kneeling on his bed, and with outstretched hands look- 
ing up to the glory-light, which shone through the 
darkness, while beneath were the words, ;< Speak, Lord, 
for thy servant heareth. " Often as I sat by my 
mother's side in church I lifted her book, and as often 
as I did so, I was fascinated by that engraving. I was 
never weary of looking at it, and it may be that in some 
hidden way the words which it thus forced upon my 
attention have had deep influence on my life. Would 
that they might impress themselves deeply now upon 
your hearts, and help to mould your characters ! And 
that they may do so, let me repeat to you some beau- 
tiful verses founded on this whole history, which has 
always been so great a favorite with the young. 

" Hushed was the evening hymn, 
The Temple courts were dark, 
The Lamp was burning dim 

Before the sacred ark, 
When suddenly a voice divine 
Rang through the silence of the shrine. 

" The old man, meek and mild, 
The prince of Israel, slept ; 
His watch the Temple child, 

The little Levite, kept ; 
And what from Eli's sense was sealed, 
The Lord to Hannah's son revealed. 



EARLY PIETY. 



Oh, give ine Samuel's ear, — 

The open ear, O Lord ! 
Alive and quick to hear 

Each whisper of thy word ; 
Like him to answer at thy call, 
And to obey thee first of all. 

Oh, give me Samuel's heart, — 

A lowly heart that waits 
When in thy house thou art, 

Or watches at thy gates 
By day and night, — a heart that still 
Moves at the breathing of thy will. 

Oh, give me Samuel's mind, — 
A sweet unmurmuring faith, 

Obedient and resigned 
To thee in life and death; 

That I may read, with child-like eyes, 

Truths that are hidden from the wise." 



V. 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 

[Preached to the Graduating Class of the University 
of the City of New York, June 10, 1888.] 

Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not. 
Jeremiah xlv. 5. 

The careful reader of the book of Jeremiah soon 
discovers that its chapters do not always come in 
chronological order. It is very difficult, perhaps, 
indeed, it is now impossible, to find out what princi- 
ples were followed in the arrangement of the materials 
of which it is composed ; but the probability is that, as 
Jeremiah died in Egypt among those who were bitterly 
opposed to his instructions, his literary remains were 
hastily put together by some posthumous editor, pos- 
sibly by the very Baruch to whom the text was 
addressed, who, in the circumstances, was more anx- 
ious for their simple preservation than for their exact 
sequence. In any case the fact is apparent that the 
prophecies do not come in the order in which they were 
given. Thus, to take one illustration: we have a 
message that belongs to the beginning of the reign of 
Jehoiakim followed by one dated in the reign of 
Zedekiah, and that again followed after an interval of 
some chapters by one which takes us back to the days 
of Jehoiakim. Now, the failure to perceive, and make 
the necessary allowance for that, has kept the merely 



58 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



cursory reader in many cases from getting the full force 
of the message which he has been perusing. In the 
chapter before us, for example, though the date and 
the occasion of its original utterance are clearly enough 
given in the first verse, yet unless we have fully in 
memory all the facts which are there alluded to, we 
may easily glance over the message which it contains 
without the perception of any pertinence in it to any- 
thing in particular. But when, marking that date, and 
taking thoroughly in that occasion, we lift this chapter 
as a whole, and put it where it belongs chronologically 
into the early part of the thirty-sixth chapter, we then 
obtain such an intensification of the lesson which it 
teaches as must indelibly imprint it on our hearts. 

Let me endeavor to do this for you now. The date, 
you observe, is the fourth year of Jehoiakim, which 
was that of Nebuchadnezzar's first invasion of Pales- 
tine and conquest of Jerusalem. It had seen the 
triumph of Babylon over Egypt at Carchemish, and 
the consequent subjugation of Judah by Babylon; so 
that now, instead of being tributaries of Egypt, Jehoia- 
kim and his subjects had become the vassals of 
Nebuchadnezzar. But this was not the worst that was 
to happen, for unless the people repented and returned 
to Jehovah, Jeremiah kept continually warning them 
that they would be carried away captive to Babylon. 
Hitherto these warnings had been disregarded, but 
the time was now favorable for their repetition. The 
people had just seen that in all his past protests against 
the policy which linked them to Egypt the prophet had 
spoken truly, and it was therefore possible that after 
such an experience they would be more willing to hear 
him. It was thus an important, even a critical time ; 
so he determined to see whether his countrymen might 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



59 



not be induced to turn unto the Lord and live. And it 
was with that object in view that at the bidding of the 
Lord he prepared the book referred to in the first verse 
of our chapter. 

Sending for Baruch, the grandson of that Maaseiah 
who had been governor of Jerusalem under Josiah, 
he secured his services as amanuensis, while he dic- 
tated to him all the oracles which he had publicly 
delivered. Then as he was himself in some way hin- 
dered from appearing before the people, Jeremiah told 
Baruch to take the roll in which he had inscribed the 
prophecies and' read them in the audience of all who 
chose to hear. The day was a fast day, and Baruch took 
up his position in one of the chambers connected with 
the Temple, where he had a goodly congregation. Some 
of his hearers told something of what they had heard to 
the princes, who sent for Baruch and made him read 
the whole over again to them. They in their turn were 
so deeply moved by what they heard that they eagerly 
desired to bring it before the king; so they went and 
told him the substance of the oracles, having first taken 
the precaution of asking both Baruch and Jeremiah 
to hide themselves. When the king was informed 
about the roll, he sent his servant Jehudi to bring 
it; and sitting the while in his winter parlor with a 
fire burning in a brazier beside him, he listened to the 
reading of a few leaves. Then he rose and took the roll 
in his own hands, cut it into pieces with his knife, and 
cast them, against the entreaty of his best friends, into 
the fire. Nor was this all. He was so mad with rage, 
that he gave orders for the apprehension of both Baruch 
and Jeremiah, intending, doubtless, to put them to 
death; but the Lord had hidden them, and they could 
not be found. 



60 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



After this Jeremiah, at the command of God and 
with the assistance of Baruch, prepared another roll 
containing all that had been in the former, with the 
addition of many similar communications, and he sent 
a terrible message to the king, which predicted the 
degrading manner of his death and burial, so that the 
monarch was utterly baffled in his attempt to silence 
the messenger of the King of kings. 

Now it is somewhere in this history that we must 
insert the chapter from which my text is taken ; and 
having regard to the date (for the public reading in the 
Temple, according to chap, xxxvi. 9, was in the fifth year 
of J ehoiakim) we are inclined to put this chapter into 
the thirty-sixth, at a point between the seventh and the 
eighth verses of that chapter. The commission to go 
into the midst of the Temple and read out of the roll 
filled Baruch 's heart with dismay. He was afraid for 
his life, with good reason, too, as we have seen; and the 
coming of such harm upon him was regarded by him as 
an utter breaking up of the scheme of life which he had 
formed for himself. For he was naturally of an ambi- 
tious disposition, and being of noble birth, he appears 
to have looked forward to high honor and the posses- 
sion of "great things." So when he was ordered to go 
on this dangerous service, he said, " Woe is me now ! 
for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow. I fainted 
in my sighing, and I find no rest." And it was to meet 
that state of mind that this message, which is not one of 
consolation more than of reproof, came unto him. It 
bids him give up all his great dreams of personal ambi- 
tion, and tells him that if he means to serve God at all, 
especially in such times as those in which his lot was 
cast, when Jehovah was breaking down what He had 
built and plucking up what He had planted, he must lay 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



61 



his account with hardship and distress. As a great 
favor, indeed, his life would be preserved, and he might 
go and do his work in the Temple without any fear on 
that score ; but he was not to look for luxury or afflu- 
ence, or what the world calls "great things." His 
reward was to be in the blessedness of doing the work 
of God, and in the favor and friendship of God himself. 
" Seekest thou great things for thyself ? Seek them not, 
for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the 
Lord; but thy life will I give thee for a prey in all 
places whither thou goest. " In all this Jeremiah was 
only giving, by divine inspiration, a lesson to his aman- 
uensis out of his own experience ; and when long after, 
in Egypt, humbled by years and by the weight of public 
calamity, and deprived of the fellowship of his prophet 
master, Baruch added this chapter to the book of which 
it is probable that he was the editor, he would read it, 
as one has said, " with very different feelings than those 
which filled his mind, when in his youth its words 
came to him to rebuke his ambition and to frustrate his 
plans." 1 

You see, now, how much my text gains in intensity 
and significance, when we put the chapter in which it 
is found into its true chronological and historic setting. 
And in this, its original application, it is a solemn call 
on all who would serve the Lord, and especially on 
such as are ministers of the Gospel, to renounce all 
dreams of self-aggrandizement and self-glorification, 
and to seek only and always to do the Lord's work, 
be the consequences what they may. "Dismiss," it 
says to all such (and I beg all students of theology to 
heed the warning), "dismiss all personal ambitions 
from your minds. Seek not for a quiet home, a liter- 

1 Dean Payne Smith in "Expositor." 



62 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



ary life, and an opportunity for professional study. Set 
not your heart upon a rich living, a wealthy congrega- 
tion, a city charge; aim not after a professor's chair 
with all its dignity and influence. Be willing to go 
where God sends you, and to do what he requires of 
you, even if it should seem to involve nothing but 
conflict and distress. If you can speak a word for 
him in the midst of abounding indifference; if you 
can bear any testimony against the sins of your coun- 
trymen ; if you can in any way lessen the griefs and 
lighten the labors of the noble Jeremiahs, who are 
bending under the weight of their responsibilities, do 
it with all your might, and take patiently and thank- 
fully what comes. But seek nothing for yourselves; 
for 'he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that 
loseth his life, for Christ's sake, shall keep it unto 
life eternal. ' " The greatness is in the man, not in the 
things which he gathers round him ; and the measure of 
the greatness in the man is that of his self-sacrifice in 
the service of his God, and of his generation by the 
will of God. And where among mere men shall we 
find a better example of this than in Jeremiah himself ? 
His name is so associated with the book of Lamenta- 
tions, indeed, that men usually call him " the weeping 
prophet. " But in truth, not even Elijah in his dauntless 
defiance of Jezebel was more heroic than he. Standing 
almost alone, repeating Cassandra-like prophecies which 
no one would believe; giving advices which no one 
would accept ; accused even of treachery to his nation 
in the crisis and climax of its agony; imprisoned by 
the king ; maltreated by the princes ; maligned by the 
prophets ; misunderstood by the people as a whole, — 
he yet held on his way, preaching the preaching which 
God bade him. I regard him on the whole as one of the 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



63 



greatest men in Jewish history. His example is for 
stimulus and encouragement to all those who find 
themselves in hardship and isolation because of their 
loyalty to God. And sooner or later, in some form or 
other, every faithful minister, wherever his lot is cast, 
at home or abroad, east or west, in the vast city temple 
or in the small village church, will have experiences 
through which he will enter into fellowship with Jere- 
miah. Well for him, then, if whatever be his secret mis- 
givings on his knees and in his closet, he can maintain 
as unflinching a front before his fellows as the prophet 
did ! We glorify Luther before the Diet, and I would 
not in the least diminish his greatness, even if I could ; 
but many a country church has seen as great a triumph 
over self, when the pastor, with no encouragement from 
Elector This, or Duke That, or Landgrave Thus, has 
under constraint of conscience uttered words which he 
knew would cost him his pulpit or diminish his already 
far too scanty income. And if Luther was a hero, shall 
we deny the name to the obscure witness-bearer in our 
own age and land ? That was the heroism to which 
Jeremiah here incited Baruch; and that is the spirit 
in which the Christian ministry is to be entered upon 
and prosecuted to-day. 

But the lesson of my text which is thus peculiarly 
appropriate to those who are called to convey God's 
message to men is broad enough to include all of us, 
whatever our special work on earth may be. As the 
servants of Christ, we are not to seek great things for 
ourselves. The terms of discipleship are these: "If 
any man be willing to come after me, let him renounce 
self. " There is no following of Christ otherwise. The 
crucifixion of self is the very touchstone of Christian- 



64 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



ity. And by the crucifixion of self I mean not the giv- 
ing up of individual luxuries or the submission of one's 
self to voluntary indignities, but the repudiation of self 
as the guide of our lives, the renunciation of self-seeking 
in any form as an object of ambition, and the enthrone- 
ment of Christ in our hearts instead. We cannot be 
God's servants at all on any other terms than these. 

But is it so great a hardship after all to give up seek- 
ing great things for ourselves ? Consider how many seek 
them and never get them. We have numerous books 
written on great successes in life, and the minds of 
youthful enthusiasts are fired by reading how here one 
and there another obtained immense fortunes and died 
millionnaires. But what a book that would be that 
should treat of the untold multitudes who have toiled 
on through life and were to the end, in spite of their 
dreams, only hewers of wood and drawers of water ? In 
the race of life they were jostled aside by some stronger 
runner, or thrown down and trampled upon by the crowd 
that pressed behind them, and they sank into unknown 
graves. We hear of the wealthy successes, but not often 
of the poor broken-hearted failure, unless perchance in 
his despair he has leaped into the river, and as men 
dragged out his lifeless corpse, they found upon his per- 
son something that indicated that he had grown sick of 
existence in the weary monotony of disappointed hope 
and baffled effort. 

Consider again, that great things, even when men 
get them, cannot satisfy the soul. One must have 
something better than "things," however great, before 
he can be happy. The wealthy man must have some- 
thing else and something better than his wealth, before 
he can enjoy that wealth itself. And there are many 
homes — no, I cannot call them homes ; let me say 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 65 

houses — among us in which you may find the costliest 
furniture, the finest specimens of art, the greatest 
" things " which genius can produce or taste can select 
or money can purchase, but into which happiness never 
enters even as a guest for a brief sojourn. Only Grod 
can fill and satisfy the soul; and the godless house 
and the godless heart lacks the one grand essential 
to satisfaction and delight. 

Consider again that even if great things could satisfy 
the soul, we cannot have them always. They are per- 
ishing, but the soul is immortal ; and when they perish, 
or when the soul is separated from the body, its portion 
has forever disappeared. You remember that old story 
which the father of history tells of Crcesus. The con- 
queror Cyras had taken him prisoner, and was leading 
him out to execution. On the way the victim kept 
continually calling upon Solon and praising the wisdom 
of the Greek law-giver; and Cyrus, curious to know 
what he meant, asked him for an explanation. " Long 
ago," was the answer, "when I was in my palace, Solon 
came to visit me, and after I had shown him all my 
wealth, I asked him if he did not regard me as the 
happiest of mortals. He replied, ' No. ' Whereupon I 
begged him to tell me what was needed to complete 
my happiness. He answered, ' Permanence. ' I made 
merry then over his conceit ; but now, stripped of my 
territory, my royalty, my palace, and my wealth, and 
soon to be deprived of my life, I see how truly he did 
speak." Ay, great things have no permanence, and 
therefore it is madness to make them the objects of 
our ambition, as if our highest felicity depended upon 
them. Indeed, history is full of salutary warning here, 
and the sands of time are covered with the wrecks of 
those who in seeking " great things " for themselves 

5 



66 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



have lost both the " great things " and themselves. 
Wrecks, yes, and these of no mean craft either. For 
among them I see that of Nebuchadnezzar, who ate 
grass among the beasts of the field ; that of Alexander, 
who sank with an aching heart into a premature grave ; 
that of Caesar, who fell by the assassin's dagger at the 
base of Pompey's statue; that of Napoleon, the splen- 
dor of whose tomb beneath the gilded dome of the 
Invalides cannot hide the fact that at the last, like an 
eagle chained to a rock, he fretted his life away as a 
captive in that far-off Atlantic isle. And of them all 
we may exclaim, — 

" Ah, who would climb the solar height, 
To set in such a starless night ? " 

"What, then," says some one, "must we have no 
ambition at all ? Is the very emotion wrong ? " To 
which I answer that whether it is right or wrong de- 
pends entirely on the object on which it is set. If that 
be purely selfish, then the emotion is essentially sel- 
fish, and so sinful. But if it be an ambition to serve 
God, and to serve our generation by his will, then 
that is a noble aspiration, and is to be followed out 
no matter what the cost. But then that is self-sacrifice 
and not self-seeking, and is like the spirit which 
was manifested by him who said, "The Son of man 
came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and 
to give his life a ransom for many. " The real truth 
here is that our care should not be for the " things " at 
all, but only for the service of God where he has put 
us ; and we should not allow either the promise of great 
things to allure us away from that service, or the fear 
of great sufferings to keep us from entering upon it. 
Our supreme desire should be to do our best, with 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



67 



God's help and for Christ's sake, and we should leave 
all else to him. Then at the end, when we have not 
been thinking of them, the great things — ay, the 
greatest of all things — will come, when he shall say, 
" Well done, good and faithful servant ; thou hast been 
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over 
many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
Remember, then, the great care of the Christian man 
should be for the service which he renders to God, 
rather than for any personal object or ambitions. 

But still another objects: "Am I never to think of 
getting on in the world at all ? Must I not try to better 
myself ? Is it not better to be comfortable than to be 
struggling, to be a foreman than a workman, to be an 
employer than an employee, to be rich than to be poor ? " 
Now the answer to that question takes us to the very 
core of the Christian philosophy of life. You say, 
" Am I never to think of getting on in the world ? " and 
I answer, "Yes, you may, provided you remember that 
the important thing is, that you are to get on, and not 
simply your circumstances." As another has said: 
" The circumstances are precious because and in so far 
as they minister to true progress in you. Seekest thou 
great things for thyself, thyself remaining the same ? 
kSeek them not. For then, like rank manure to a sickly 
plant, they can only come as a bane. But seekest 
thou, through fulfilment of the duties and submission 
to the burdens of the present, to fit thyself for a greater 
future ? Seek on, for that future will full surely come, 
and will enlarge and enrich thy life. " By all means try 
to " better yourself, " but then see that it is yourself you 
are bettering, and not your circumstances; and the 
only way to better yourself in that sense is to do, in 
the name of the Lord Jesus, the present duty which 



68 SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 

God has given you, however lowly or dangerous or 
distressing it may be, with all your might. That will 
qualify you for the doing of something better;- and 
when you are thus qualified, God will open the door to 
that better thing, and so, up and up you will go, not by 
your seeking of great things, but by great things seek- 
ing you. Then when you get them, you will hold them 
not for yourself, but for God. They will become a part 
of the estate which Jehovah has given you to manage 
for him, and you will seek, as " good stewards, " so to 
manage it, that you may be found faithful at the last. 

Thus we have got the harmonizing principle between 
the Christian graces of contentment and laudable ambi- 
tion. The man is content until it is God's time for him 
to rise ; nay, he realizes that God has put him where he 
is, and he does faithfully the duties of his sphere out 
of love to Christ, knowing at the same time that he is 
thereby fitting himself for something better, when God 
shall see it fitting to bestow that upon him. But his 
happiness is not in the better thing which he has not 
yet attained ; it is in the glow of inner joy which he has 
in the work that he is doing as work for God. The 
emphasis of the text thus may be best put on the words 
"for thyself;" and so understood, it is the negative 
form of that affirmative precept which Christ enjoined 
when he said, " Seek first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto 
you. " That will reconcile you to the absence of great 
things ; and it will make great things safe for you, if 
they should come. Admirably has it been said in 
this connection, " The man who will get on according 
to the will of God leaves to the same will his promo- 
tion. Whom the Lord commendeth is commended; 
whom the Lord promoteth is promoted; whom the 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



69 



Lord calls victor is crowned. Opportunity never yet 
failed, and under God's rule never can fail to wait on 
faculty. Fit yourself for great things, and the great 
things are then fitted for you. The Lord needs men 
to promote more than you need promotion. Get ready. 
He is waiting. Show yourself approved in the lower, 
and you will swiftly pass into the higher room. This 
is the true joy, the true glory, — to feel that the 
Lord has called you up, and that all good beings ratify 
and rejoice in it. There is a glow in such success, of 
which no triumphant knave ever even dreamed. Fear 
lest you should kill such joy by restless, selfish ambi- 
tion. Fear lest you should imperil your decisive 
promotion by weakly snatching at the prize. Work, 
work, work, 4 at the present service which your Lord 
assigns/ and then await the Master's summons, 
4 Friend, come up hither, thou hast won the crown. ' " 1 
Here, as I have said, is the harmonizing principle 
between contentment and aspiration. Here, too, let 
me add, is the true and only solution of those ques- 
tions which are pressing in these days for settlement, 
and of which socialism in its varied forms is the cheap 
and easy, and, alas ! also alluring and deceitful answer 
to the superficial and selfish thinker. Let the prin- 
ciples which we have now announced be accepted, and 
the laborer will fit himself for something nobler by 
diligence and devotion where he is; while the capi- 
talist will regard himself as the steward of God's 
manifold bounties, and become considerate of his men 
as men and not machines. But so long as self-seeking 
holds sway in both, there will be nothing but conflict ; 
for selfishness on one side or the other or on both is at 
the bottom of every dispute, and under the iron rule of 



1 Baldwin Brown's Christian Policy of Life, pp. 159, 160. 



70 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



the survival of the strongest, the weakest will go to the 
wall. On the other hand, let the law of love and self- 
sacrifice be accepted by all alike at the foot of the 
cross, and then the rivalry will be one of beneficence 
according to that priceless utterance of Christ : " He 
that will be greatest among you let him be your ser- 
vant, even as the Son of man came not to be minis- 
tered unto but to minister, and to give his life a 
ransom for many." This is the loftiest Christianity 
and the deepest philosophy. Oh, that the men of our 
generation would hear and heed, would learn and prac- 
tise its far-reaching principles ! To seek great things 
in selfish ambition is to lose all the brightest things 
that life can give ; to seek to serve God where we are, 
out of love to Christ, is, without making it an end 
in itself, to secure both the life that now is and that 
which is to come. " Seekest thou great things for thy- 
self ? seek them not; " but if when thou art quietly and 
diligently serving God where thou art, " great things" 
seek thee, accept them and use them not for thyself, 
but for him, in the service of thy generation by his 
will. And if no great things come, and thou art fain 
to be content with receiving thy life as a prey, then 
look for thy compensation in the present satisfaction 
of serving God, and in the future glory of being with 
God. Remember him who for the joy that was set 
before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, 
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Gentlemen of the Graduating Class: 

I congratulate you on the position which now you 
occupy. Having finished your course of study at the 
University, the time has come when, with honor to 
yourselves and the indorsement of your teachers, you 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS, 



71 



are to begin the active work of life. That which has 
been thus far the goal which you have been striving 
to reach becomes, now that you have reached it, the 
starting-point of another and more arduous race; and 
as to-night you think that you have not passed this 
way heretofore, you may be feeling a little anxious 
about that which is before you. I could have wished 
that your honored chancellor had been here himself to 
give you such words of cheer and counsel as he knows 
so well how to speak; but in his absence and as his 
substitute, permit me to commend to your earnest 
attention the thoughts which I have endeavored to set 
before you in this discourse. Remember, I beseech 
you, that your highest aim ought not to be to get 
" things, " but to form and maintain a noble Christian 
character. What you are is infinitely more important 
than what you have; what you become in your own 
manhood is vastly more momentous than what you 
acquire of the world's good things. Character is the 
true success. But what is character ? It is not genius ; 
it is not intellectual ability ; it is not reputation, — 
though that is oftentimes mistaken for it. It is an 
inward thing and not an outward; and when we come 
to analyze it we shall find that it consists in conscience 
enlightened by an intelligent acquaintance with the 
Word of God and obeyed with courage. Conscience 
gives us the distinction between right and wrong. 
Intelligence, enlightened by the Word and Spirit of 
God, enables us to see what things are right and what 
are wrong; and courage sets itself manfully to carry 
out these convictions in the face of every opposition. 
Conscience is thus the backbone of character; and 
therefore, as the secret of all real manhood, I would 
say to you, accustom yourselves to look at every ques- 



72 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



tion of conduct in the light of conscience. I know 
that it is the fashion in these days, in some quarters, 
to sneer at such advice, and to preach up the impor- 
tance of getting position, property, wealth, and the 
like, no matter how ; but I would not have you to belong 
to the molluscous class of moral invertebrates, who 
yield to every external pressure, and wriggle from side 
to side as interest or fashion may dictate. Take your 
stand on conscience, and let your conscience be rooted 
in the Word of God. Reverence such a conscience 
as your king, and let your deciding question in all 
moments of hesitation be not, Will it pay ? or, Will it 
please ? or, Will it bring me reputation ? but, Is it 
right ? Lord Jesus, " What wilt thou have me to do ? " 
Look well to that, and let other " things " look after 
themselves ; nay, rather believe that while you hold to 
that, God will look after all other things for you. Never 
forget the advice which Tennyson, after his manner, 
has packed into these lines: — 

" Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, — 
These three alone lead life to sovereign power. 
Yet not for power, — power of herself 
Would come uncalled for ; but to live by law, 
Acting the law we live by without fear, 
And because right is right to follow right, 
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence." 

And now, as I bid you heartily God-speed, the scene 
of the moment fades from my view, and I think of life 
as itself a series of training times, each graduating into 
something that must be higher or lower than itself, 
according as we have used or abused its opportunities. 
The school-boy graduates into the student, the student 
into the professional man or the merchant, the profes- 



SEEKING GREAT THINGS. 



73 



sional man or the merchant into the man of retirement, 
the man of retirement into — what ? Life itself into 
— what ? Gentlemen, when that last graduation-day 
arrives, may there be for you and me, in the Well 
Done of that great Examiner, a better diploma than 
that which this week you are to receive, and an 
abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May God bless 
you. Amen. 



VI. 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 

Him with whom we have to do. — Hebrews iv. 13. 

The phrase which I have taken as my text at this time 
has been explained in three ways. Literally rendered, 
it is "Him to whom is our word," the writer using the 
same term which he has employed in the clause "the 
word of God," in the beginning of the twelfth verse, 
and thus pointing an antithesis between God's word 
to us and our word to God. But it is hard to see in 
what precise sense " our word to God " is to be under- 
stood. Some, taking the term " word " to mean discourse, 
would paraphrase the expression thus, "concerning 
whom our discourse is," or "about whom we are now 
speaking;" but such an exposition is not only incon- 
sistent with the common use of the Greek preposition 
which is here employed, but is also in itself so tame 
as to make the phrase an anti-climax, altogether out of 
harmony with the sublimity of the sentence of which it 
is the close. 

Others, therefore, with a finer exegetical instinct, 
would take the term " word " here in the sense of 
"account," as indeed it is rendered in the seventeenth 
verse of the thirteenth chapter of this same epistle, 
"They watch for your souls as they that must give 
account," thus restricting the reference of the expres- 
sion simply to our responsibility to God. This is 
every way better than the former, because it is in 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 75 

perfect harmony with the construction of the original, 
and entirely agrees with the scope of the passage ; for 
the Apostle is speaking of judgment, and the mention 
of him with whom our reckoning must be made forms 
a most appropriate conclusion of his appeal. At the 
same time this explanation seems to me unduly to 
narrow that which in the phrase itself is expressed in 
the most general manner. That it includes accounta- 
bility and the last judgment, is undeniable; but its 
sweep is vastly wider than that, taking in our entire 
relationship to God, of which responsibility is only one 
particular. Accordingly I am disposed to agree with 
Alford, when he says, "There could not be a happier 
rendering than this 1 with whom we have to do 1 of the 
English version, expressing our whole concern and 
relation with God, one who is not to be trifled with, 
considering that his Word is so powerful and his eye 
so discerning." It is in this broad sense that I will 
take the passage now, while I proceed to illustrate 
its truth in the several departments of the divine 
administration. 

First of all, then, I remark that we have to do 
with God in the operations of nature. It is true, 
indeed, that the advance of science has revealed order, 
regularity, and law in the physical universe ; but that 
is only what we might have anticipated, if, as the 
Bible declares and we believe, the world was called 
into being at the first, and is still sustained by the 
power and wisdom of the Most High, for " God is not 
the author of confusion. " We are not surprised, there- 
fore, to find that he proceeds upon fixed principles; 
but we must beware of allowing that which we call 
a law to hide from us the ever active agency of him 



76 HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 

whose orderly method of operation that law is. We 
must bear in mind that " Nature is but the name of 
an effect whose cause is God," and in redeeming men 
from the superstition which saw a divine frown in 
every eclipse and a divine judgment in every hurri- 
cane, we must not rush into the opposite extreme of 
excluding the Creator from the Universe which he has 
made. For what are the laws of nature, as men call 
them, but just the observed modes in which the forces 
of nature work ? The laws do not enforce themselves. 
They are only the methods in which the energies behind 
them put forth their might. And what are these 
energies ? If you put the question to science, she 
has, as yet, no answer ready. But in the doctrine of 
the conservation of energy she tells us that the sum 
of the actual and potential energies in the universe 
is a constant and unalterable thing, unaffected by the 
mutual interaction of these forces themselves : and in 
the doctrine of the correlation of forces she informs us 
that one force may be transmuted into another ; and so 
she prepares the way for the inference drawn by one of 
her own apostles, Mr. Alfred Wallace, to wit, — to the 
effect that all force is at last resolvable into will force, 
and that there is behind the operations of all secondary 
causes a guiding force in the will of the Supreme intel- 
ligence. And so at length, as the latest conclusion 
of one of her own disciples, science has reached the 
earliest postulate of revelation, and is acknowledging 
that the laws of nature are the common operations of 
divine power, depending entirely for their existence 
and continuance on the divine wisdom and will. 

Now, if this view be correct, what men call gravita- 
tion is just the power of God putting itself forth in 
the regulation, according to certain fixed principles, 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 



77 



of the relation of material bodies to each other; and 
what they call electricity is the power of God exerting 
itself on certain other conditions and in certain other 
circumstances. Some ten years ago, when the mem- 
bers of the Corean Embassy visited the Western Union 
Building, So Kiang Pom, the secretary of the legation, 
who was always very quiet and never lost an oppor- 
tunity to make a few notes in a book which he carried 
for the purpose, put a poser to those who were explain- 
ing things to him, when, after having heard a great 
deal about the electrical system, he asked, with much 
simplicity, " What, then, is electricity ? " They tried 
to tell him that nobody knew just exactly what it is, 
and the anxious inquirer put up his pencil and his 
book in disappointment. But man is always speech- 
less, no matter how intelligent he may be, when he is 
brought face to face with God. And it would have 
been well if some one had boldly answered the heathen 
prince after this fashion : " Electricity in the last resort 
is the power of God put forth in a certain set of circum- 
stances and in accordance with certain conditions, 
which, in the course of our investigation of his crea- 
tion, we have discovered. " The same is true concern- 
ing attraction and cohesion in chemistry; and, in a 
word, that which in physical things makes a cause 
a cause, the nexus which secures that what we call an 
effect shall result from that which we call its cause, 
is always and everywhere the power of God. Hence 
when we employ an agent in nature to produce a cer- 
tain result, the power which we are utilizing is the 
power of God, and the highest of all is seen thus to 
be the servant of all. When in the workshop the 
artisan invokes the aid of steam, his moving of the 
handle which sets the engine in motion is, uncon- 



78 HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 

sciously it may be, yet really a calling for the help of 
God through that peculiar channel of his power; and 
when the merchant sends his message to the telegraph 
office, he is virtually, though perhaps unwittingly, 
beseeching God to use his power for the transmis- 
sion of his dispatch. And so in all similar cases. 
Some men ridicule the very idea of prayer, and think 
it absurd that God should answer the appeals of his 
people ; and yet in this way every day they live and 
every hour of every day they are really, albeit uncon- 
sciously, invoking his aid and receiving his assistance ; 
for even in these departments of nature it is with God 
that they have to do. 

What a new dignity is given by these considerations 
to that which men call nature ! What a new interest 
to science ! What a new importance to our common 
labor! How absurd, too, when we look at the matter 
in this light, are all the fears entertained by simple- 
minded believers regarding science, as if it could ever 
in the long run undermine revelation ! The world and 
the Bible are works of the same author, and rightly 
interpreted can never be antagonistic. Science prop- 
erly prosecuted will come at length to be the theology 
of nature, even as theology, correctly understood, is 
the science of Revelation ; and though the interpreters 
of the two may occasionally fall out, we may rely upon 
it that they are themselves always in harmony. Let 
us not, therefore, be jealous of science ; for in so far as 
it advances in its discoveries, it will only reveal to us 
more clearly how true it is that in nature it is God 
with whom we have to do. 

But in the second place I remark, that we have 
to do with God in the overtures of the Gospel. I do 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 79 

not require here and now to enter into an elaborate 
proof of the fact that the Gospel is from God. That 
has been established over and over again, and needs 
not to be done anew. When an advocate is intrusted 
with a cause headed, "The people versus so and so," 
he does not feel himself under obligation to show that 
the government of the State is a rightful and legiti- 
mate " government of the people, for the people, and by 
the people. " The conflict of a hundred years ago settled 
that, and he very naturally takes it for granted. In 
like manner, when the preacher speaks of the over- 
tures of the Gospel as from God, he is not now to be 
stopped on the threshold of his case with the demand 
for proof of the divine origin of the Gospel ; that has 
been settled by the conflicts of eighteen hundred years, 
and may now be warrantably enough assumed, espe- 
cially when he is dealing with those whose very pres- 
ence in his audience is a tacit admission of their 
assent to his statement. Therefore, without hesita- 
tion, I adopt Paul's language, and say that "the Gospel 
is the power of God unto salvation. " 

Now, going back on what we have already advanced 
about God's power in natural agents like water, steam, 
and electricity, we may find that some things about them 
throw considerable light upon the Gospel. Thus, if we 
want to avail ourselves of the force which God has put 
into and maintains in electricity, for example, we must 
comply with the conditions on which it is generated 
and becomes operative. The man of science does not 
presume to dictate to the agent with which he is deal- 
ing. He never says, " It ought to do thus and so, and 
because it does not, I will have nothing more to do 
with it." Rather he investigates by patient research 
the methods of its operation, and then sets himself in 



80 HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 

conformity with these to avail himself of its help. 
He seeks it in the way in which he has discovered that 
it is to be found, and he uses it according to its own 
laws. Now, in the same way, if the Gospel is God's 
power for a certain purpose, and we wish to take 
advantage of it for that purpose, we must comply with 
its conditions and laws. These are faith in Jesus 
Christ as the only Mediator, Redeemer, Sacrifice, and 
Lord, and repentance unto life. To say that they ought 
to have been different is just as unphilosophical on the 
part of the sinner as it would be on the part of the man 
of science to allege that electricity should have been 
generated in some other way than God has chosen for 
that purpose ; and to know that they are as they are, 
ought to be enough to stir us up to compliance with 
them. 

If you ask me why in order that the Gospel should 
be God's power unto salvation there should be needed, 
on the one hand, the incarnation of Deity in Christ, 
the death of Christ on the cross for human sin, the 
resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ, and 
the mission of the Holy Spirit, and on the other the 
sinner's faith and repentance, — then I will answer you 
when you can tell me why certain ingredients and not 
others are needed in the electric battery for the gen- 
eration of that mystic power of which we have been 
speaking; why a wire is needed for its transmission, 
and why contact with a peculiar sort of substance is 
absolutely indispensable for its discharge. If again 
you affirm that it is unreasonable to ask you to take 
advantage of the Gospel for salvation unless I can 
unfold to you the rationale of all these things, and tell 
you precisely what the virtue is that comes from Christ 
for our salvation, then I will send you down to the 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 81 



Western Union office with the question of the Corean 
ambassador, — " What, then, is electricity ? " — and 
I will show you those men availing themselves all the 
while of an agent of which not even the wisest among 
them knows what it is, but only how it works. Oh, if 
you would only do with the Gospel as the power of God 
for your salvation what you are always doing with other 
powers of God for your service, you would immediately 
conform to its conditions and turn to Christ in faith 
and penitence ! When you do thus comply with its 
conditions or laws, then you will be saved; for no 
power of God ever fails. That is why we speak here 
with such unqualified confidence. If the result depended 
on anything else or anything less than God's power, 
we should fear to exaggerate; but we are absolutely 
sure of that. 

Then, finally, because it is God's power, it is not 
a thing to be trifled with. You know what happens 
when a man fools with electricity; let him violate 
any of its conditions, and he is instantly destroyed. 
And so if you refuse to avail yourselves of the Gospel's 
power of salvation according to its conditions, and 
approach it as an antagonist or a railer, the very fact 
that it is God's power will work to your perdition, and 
you will be struck down by the outflashing of "the 
wrath of the Lamb." 

But the suggestiveness of this parallel between the 
power of God in nature and in grace has led me a little 
away from the precise point on which I wished, first of 
all, to insist ; this, namely, that if you have to do with 
God in the overtures of the Gospel, then the hearing 
of its proclamations assumes a very serious character 
indeed. For in such a case you have to answer not 
the herald, but God. The minister is but a man; he 



82 HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 

may be also a very poorly furnished man, and if he 
were talking on other subjects, he might show himself 
much inferior to you in his acquirements and abilities ; 
but if he is proclaiming the Gospel, — if, as tested by 
the statements of this Book, his representations are 
true, —then he has been the instrument of bringing 
before you the message of God to you, and from that 
point on you have to do not with him, but with God. 
The most he can say is what Gad said to David, — 
" Advise now and see what answer I shall return to 
him that sent me ; " but the answer is made to God, not 
to him. Have you thought of that sufficiently, my 
hearers? It may be an easy thing to put me off. It 
would be no great matter to despise me. It might 
even be venial enough to amuse yourselves, if you chose, 
over my words and ways. That were little, if that 
were all. But in so far forth as I publish God's decla- 
ration that "he was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, 
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, 
that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
him," then it is with God that you have to do, and 
not with me. That is the significance of this open 
Bible on this desk. That is what makes the enjoy- 
ment of gospel privileges so solemn. It is a great 
opportunity, but it is a great peril ; an opportunity of 
salvation, but a peril of peculiarly aggravated perdition. 
I implore you to consider well all that these things 
imply, and to remember that you are dealing with 
God in the overtures of the Gospel. 

But I remark in the third place that we have to 
do with God in the dispensations of Providence. By 
Providence I understand God's overruling care over all 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 83 



events in nature and all the actions and circumstances 
of men. Now in his Word it is clearly and repeatedly 
asserted that he has a purpose which he is evolving 
from age to age in the history of the human race as a 
whole, and of every individual in it. " There are many 
devices in a man's heart, nevertheless the counsel of the 
Lord, that shall stand. " " The hearts of all men are 
in his hands, and he turneth them whithersoever he 
will." "A man's heart deviseth his way, but the 
Lord directeth his steps." "A sparrow shall not fall 
on the ground without your father." "The very hairs 
of your head are all numbered. " 

Such are a few of the expressions used in the Sacred 
Scriptures upon this subject, and if it be asked how this 
control can be exercised without interfering with the 
free agency of men, or breaking in upon the uniformity 
of the operations of the laws of nature, I frankly answer 
that I cannot tell. I know only that according to the 
Word of God that control is real, and I affirm that if 
we care to look back over the history of the world, or 
to go minutely into the tenor of our own past lives, 
we shall discover that it has been constantly exer- 
cised. No one of us here this morning could explain 
how he came to be in the circumstances in which he 
is now placed, without taking this divine control into 
the account. Repeatedly at the critical crossings in 
our life journeyings we have been, so to say, " shunted " 
either this way or that by an unseen power, and though 
we took little thought of it at the moment, certain 
occurrences in our career so hedged in our way as to 
lead us on and up to results of which otherwise we had 
never dreamed. It looked perfectly natural at the 
time, and yet by these natural means this supernatural 
control was made effective ; for both natural and super- 
natural are God. 



84 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 



If, again, it should be objected that it seems deroga- 
tory to the dignity of God to say that he should concern 
himself with such minute matters as those which affect 
our insignificant lives, then the answer is twofold : 
first, that there can be no perfection without the super- 
vision of details; and second, that apparently small 
things are often the hinges on which greater and more 
momentous affairs turn, so that it is impossible to 
superintend the latter without looking carefully into 
the former. The choice thus comes to be between no 
Providence at all, and a Providence which is universal ; 
and even apart from the statements of the Word of God 
upon the subject, no man who looks intelligently at 
the history of the world, or at his own personal career, 
will hesitate long as to which he will accept. 

Now if we assent to the doctrine that God's Providence 
is in and over all events, it will give a new importance 
in our view to every occurrence. The history of the 
past will then become to us a part of God's revelation 
of himself to men, and the incidents of the present will 
be felt to be the unfolding of that "one increasing 
purpose " of his which is running through the ages. 
The newspaper will be read by us as a daily chapter in 
the unveiling of his plans, and its issue will seem to 
us to be a part of the unwinding of that roll which 
shall stretch at last from the beginning to the end of 
time, — from paradise lost to paradise regained, — and 
shall be bright with the manifestation of the wisdom 
and love of the Most High. Nay, more : if we assent to 
this doctrine, — and there seems to me no alternative 
between that and atheism, — - then the events in our 
own personal history, painful and pleasant alike, are 
seen to be " the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning 
us," and we enter into the assurance of the Apostle 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 85 



when he says, "We know that all things work to- 
gether for good to them who love God, to them who 
are the called according to his purpose. " I do not say, 
and Paul does not say, that this result will be brought 
about irrespective of our own personal agency, but I 
do say that this, if we are in Christ, will be the 
result ; and for those who really believe that, and are 
in him, the sting is taken out of trial. As in Paul's 
case, indeed, the thorn may not be extracted, but the 
love in the purpose will reconcile us to the pain in the 
process. To the Christian there is nothing untoward, 
for everything is of God ; and as in the mechanism of 
a watch, those wheels which seem to run counter to 
each other are yet working together to produce the 
movement of the fingers on the dial, so in our lives 
those things which appear to be contrary are really 
made to help forward our spiritual growth. 

Thus the peace which springs out of this faith is not 
that of the fatalist who submits to the inevitable, or that 
of the Stoic who schools himself into insensibility and 
indifference, but that of one who can say, " He that spared 
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how 
shall he not with him also freely give us all things ? " 
It is the resignation of one who, though he cannot see 
the how, still realizes the fact that " He doeth all things 
well," and so patiently endures painful things for the 
sake of the higher good which through them is to be 
gained. Ah ! if we only had more faith in the truth 
that it is with God we have to do in the losses and 
crosses of our lives, there would be less of worry and 
despondency in our hearts. Disappointment would 
become in our view a stepping-stone to something larger 
than the hope whose realization we had missed. Loss 
would become the precursor of a higher gain, and sor- 



86 HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 

row the forerunner of a pure and lasting joy. If God 
is arranging all things for our good, why should we 
ever flee from the post of duty, or fling ourselves in 
sadness " under the juniper tree " ? If even in our 
bereavements he has been supreme, why should we be 
rebellious and refuse his consolation? Can we not trust 
him any further than we can see him or understand 
his workings? What has he done that we should be so 
suspicious of him? Nay, having shown his love to us 
by the giving up of his Son on our behalf, can we ever 
be suspicious of him after that? Oh, thou afflicted and 
tossed with tempest but not comforted, lay fast hold of 
this truth. He with whom thou hast to do in the 
things which have caused thy sorrow is God who 
loved thee and gave his Son for thee, and by and by, if 
thou wilt but cling to him, thou wilt see that he never 
loved thee more than when he sent this stroke upon 
thee; for he is thy Father, and 

" A Father's hand will never cause 
His child one needless tear." 

But I remark in the fourth place that we have to 
do with God in the duties of daily life. Our respon- 
sibilities in society and business are not to each other 
merely, or to the laws of the State alone, but to God. 
We are under obligation to our fellows, indeed; but we 
are so because God has laid these obligations on us. 
In the home we owe love to each other, and ought to be 
characterized there by mutual helpfulness and forbear- 
ance. But if we should fail in these respects we are 
guilty not only of sin against the members of our family, 
but also of sin against God. There is an Unseen Guest 
in each of our abodes, who is by us dishonored and 
disobeyed every time we violate the holy obligations 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 



87 



of the household. Ah! if we but remembered that, 
how much easier it would be to u show piety at home " ! 
In business, too, we have not to do merely with our 
human customers; buyer and seller alike are dealing 
with the unseen God. The obligations which the one 
owes to the other are at the same time obligations 
which they both owe to God; honesty is not merely 
what the one is bound to show to the other, but what 
both alike owe to God. 

This used to be recognized in England in the legal 
form of a bill of lading, which, if I remember rightly, 
commenced thus : " In the name of God, Amen. " And 
the same truth was acknowledged in the erection in 
all old European towns of a cross in the middle 
of the market-place. These things originally meant 
that God was to be regarded as a party to every 
bargain, and that men were to buy and sell as con- 
stantly under the influence of the love of him who 
died for them upon the cross. But, alas ! I fear that 
nowadays all this is too sadly forgotten, and the self- 
ish maxim, "Every man for himself," has come to be 
too largely received and acted upon. They try to salve 
their consciences by adding, " and God for us all ; " 
but if every man be only for himself, God will be for 
none of us. Let it not be so, I beseech you, among 
you. Remember that God is dealing with you in every 
transaction. Treat every one with whom you are 
doing business as you would treat the Christ. Then 
your counting-house will become sacred, and your store 
will be a training-place for the fellowships of the skies. 
Do you say that is Utopian? Then I reply that, 
whether you acknowledge it or not, you are already 
dealing with God in every transaction; and it is 
better that you should know it, for it is impossible 



88 HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 



to outwit him, and he will hold you to a rigid reckon- 
ing at last. 

I ought now to remark, in the fifth place, that 
we shall have to do with God in the awards of final 
judgment. But here your time will not permit me to 
enlarge. The judgment is absolutely certain ; for " it 
is appointed unto men once to die, and after death the 
judgment. " It is to be universal ; for before the judge 
shall be " gathered all nations. " The judge is to be the 
Omniscient One who is acquainted with the secret things 
of each man's heart and life, and the righteous one 
who shall render to every man according to his works. 
And his awards are to be eternal; for the wicked 
"shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the 
righteous into life everlasting." Now when we take 
all these things into consideration, and remember that 
we are making now the materials for which these 
awards are to be given at the last, " what manner of 
persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and 
godliness? " The day of judgment will make noth- 
ing new. It will only reveal the characters which we 
are making now, and stamp them with the fixity of 
eternity. Thus we invest the brief space of our lives 
here with tremendous importance, for it holds in it the 
issues of eternity ; and it does so because in the whole 
matter we have to do with God. Oh, will you remem- 
ber this awful truth, and live every day now so thor- 
oughly with God, and in the fellowship of Christ, that 
you shall have what the Apostle has called " boldness 
in the day of judgment " ? 

We have to do with God. That is the great truth 
for the day. We are environed on every side with God. 
We cannot move a step without confronting him. We 



HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO. 



89 



cannot engage in any work without dealing with him, 
or, as the Hebrew poet has sublimely put it, " He has 
beset us before and behind, and laid his hand upon 
us." It is a solemn thought for the sinner, but it is 
full of joy to him who has made God his friend ; for 
he can sing, " How precious are thy thoughts unto me, 
God ! how great is the sum of them ! If I should 
count them, they are more in number than the sand. 
When I awake I am still with thee. " To which of these 
classes do you belong, my hearer ? I leave you to give 
the answer; but whether you be sinner or saint, here 
is an appropriate prayer for each of you: "Search me, 
God, and know my heart; try me, and know my 
thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting. " Amen. 



VII. 



"I KNOW WHERE THOU DWELLEST." 

i" know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where 
Satan's seat is. — Revelations ii. 13. 

Pergamos, or Pergamum, the seat of government for 
the Roman Province of Asia Propria, was situated in 
Asia Minor, some three miles to the north of the river 
Caicus, and about twenty miles from the sea. It had 
been formerly the capital of the kingdom of Mysia, and 
was at first famed for its wealth, which was said to 
have had its origin in the fact that Lysimachus, a suc- 
cessor of Alexander, intrusted nine thousand talents 
to the keeping of one of its rulers, who appropriated 
the money, declared himself independent, and founded 
a kingdom whose last monarch bequeathed all his 
dominions and treasures to the Romans. Among these 
treasures was an immense library, consisting of two 
hundred thousand rolls, which Antony gave to Cleo- 
patra, by whom it was added to the great collection at 
Alexandria, where it was ultimately destroyed by the 
Caliph Omar. 

Side by side with this pre-eminence in wealth and 
literature, there was in Pergamos an equally conspic- 
uous devotion to idolatry. In a grove hard by the 
city there was a cluster of famous temples, dedicated 
to Zeus, Minerva, Apollo, Venus, Bacchus, and JEscu- 



"/ KNOW WHERE THOU DWELLEST." 91 

lapius, but it was to the last named of these that the 
deepest homage of the Pergamenes was given. Their 
city was "temple-keeper" to JEsculapius, even as 
Ephesus was to Diana ; and in their case, as in those of 
other Asiatic Greeks, idolatry was associated with the 
worst forms of licentious indulgence. That of itself 
would be warrant enough for speaking of their city as 
the place where Satan's seat or throne was; but there 
may, perhaps, be something still more definite in that 
description, for the serpent, which among Jews was 
a familiar name for Satan, was the distinctive symbol 
of iEsculapius. A living snake was kept, and all but 
worshipped, in his temple at Pergamos, and the repre- 
sentation of a serpent was stamped upon some of the 
coins of the city. It is possible, therefore, that there 
may be some allusion to these things in the language 
of my text. 

Now in this seat of Roman power, this centre of 
Greek idolatry and culture, this "cathedral city of 
paganism," as one has called it, a Christian church had 
come into existence. We know nothing of its early 
history. We cannot tell when or by whom it was 
planted. All our information regarding it is derived 
from this epistle to its members. But from that we 
may gather the following particulars : namely, that it 
had been blessed at first with considerable prosperity ; 
that after a time it had been assailed by fierce perse- 
cution, and had given the name of Antipas to the roll 
of " the noble army of martyrs ; " and that, after having 
successfully resisted the intolerance of oppression, it 
was in danger of being corrupted by the insidious influ- 
ence of the pleasures and fashions of the city, so that 
its members needed to be warned against yielding to 
such allurements. 



92 11 1 KNOW WHERE THOU D WELLES T." 

From the first, the world has sought to vanquish the 
church in one or other of two ways. It has attempted 
either to destroy it by persecution, or to corrupt it by 
patronage. It has tried to exterminate Christians by 
putting them to death ; and when that has failed, it has 
endeavored to take the aggressiveness out of their Chris- 
tianity by beguiling them into fashionable sins or 
tempting them to self-indulgence. If they could not 
be thrust out of the world, they might be amalgamated 
with the world. If they would not yield to its perse- 
cution, they might be won by its flattery. If they 
could not be terrified by its violence, they might be 
courted by its attentions. 

Now of these two methods the latter is by far the 
more insidious, and many who have been proof against 
the first have fallen ignominiously before the second. 
Not one of the Pergamenes, so far as we know, 
renounced Christ through fear of persecution; but 
when the grandees of the city invited them to their 
banquets, and showered upon them polite attentions, 
some of them were overcome, and this letter was 
written to put them all more thoroughly on their guard. 
They were in a place whose moral atmosphere was 
laden with the poison of licentiousness and idolatry. 
It became them, therefore, to keep up the general tone 
of their spiritual health, lest they should become 
infected with these evils ; and those among them who 
had become victims to their influence are earnestly 
exhorted to repent, lest they should be destroyed with 
the sword that cometh out of the mouth of him "who 
walketh in the midst of the candlesticks and holdeth 
the stars in his right hand. " 

Many important things are suggested by this brief 
summary of the history and condition of the church at 



/ KNOW WHERE THOU DWELLEST." 93 



Pergamos, but it is not my intention to allude further, 
except incidentally, to the case of these ancient disci- 
ples. My purpose rather is to put before you some 
thoughts naturally rising out of the words of the text, 
and calculated to be of service to us, both for warning 
and encouragement, in our daily life. 

Notice, then, in the first place, that it is possible to 
be a Christian anywhere. Pergamos was the place 
where Satan's seat was; and yet even in that city there 
was a Christian church, concerning many of whose 
members the Lord could say that " they had held fast 
his name, and had not denied his faith. " Christianity 
is not a thing Of locality, but of character. There are 
plants which will grow in some latitudes, but will die 
in others. Tropical shrubs will not flourish within 
the Arctic circle, and the Alpine flora are not found on 
low-lying plains. But Christianity can live wherever 
a man can live, for it is a thing of personal character ; 
and as that is a matter of choice, and a man always 
is what he chooses to be, he may be a Christian if he 
choose in any circumstances, or in any place. Chris- 
tianity consists in the loyalty of the heart, and the 
allegiance of the life to Christ ; and these may be main- 
tained anywhere. Obadiah kept his conscience clear 
even in the household of Ahab. Daniel preserved his 
integrity to God amid the corruption of the court of 
Babylon, and Nehemiah maintained his piety in the 
palace of the Persian emperor. Nor are instances of 
a similar sort wanting at the other end of the social 
scale. As Jonathan Edwards said, in words which 
have become proverbial, " The grace of God can live 
where neither you nor I could ; " and they who work in 
the streets and lanes of the cities are often cheered by 



94 "/ KNOW WHERE THOU D WELLE ST." 



coming in unexpected places on humble Christians who 
are walking with God as truly as Enoch did. 

And what is true of places is equally so of occupa- 
tions. Unless a man's business or occupation be in 
and of itself sinful, as pandering to the vices and 
demoralizing to the characters of his fellows, he may 
serve Christ in any profession or trade. The Roman 
army under the empire was a very poor school for 
morals, and yet all the centurions mentioned in the 
New Testament seem to have been men with some good 
thing in their hearts toward the Lord. The sailor is 
proverbially rough, and yet among our seamen have 
been found some of the bravest and most earnest Chris- 
tians of our times. The population of our mining 
districts is commonly considered to be somewhat 
regardless, and yet when some dreadful explosion has 
occurred, and some of the workmen have been buried 
for days by the collapse of the shaft, we have read such 
accounts of their prayers and praises during their living 
grave as have convinced us that they, at least, were 
genuine disciples of the Lord. Character may take 
some of its coloring from circumstances ; but it is itself 
independent of them, for it is the choice of that per- 
sonal will by which a man breasts circumstances and 
makes them subservient to his own great life purpose. 

Now, if this be so, if it be true that a man may be 
a Christian anywhere, what follows? This, in the first 
place, — that we must not be prejudiced against a man 
because of the locality in which we find him, or the 
work in which he is engaged. Even the Lord Jesus 
came out of Nazareth, and we know how near Nathanael 
was to making a fatal mistake regarding him, by ignor- 
ing the principle on which I am now insisting. Test 
a man by what he is, rather than by where he comes 



"Z KNOW WHERE THOU I) WELLE ST." 



95 



from. Let not the bad reputation of the quarter in 
which he lives, or the evil report of the trade at which 
he works, keep you from being just to him, or from 
recognizing the Christ image in him, if it be truly 
there. The real question is whether he is serving 
Christ; and if he is, let the difficulties of his situation 
only commend him all the more strongly to your confi- 
dence and assistance. 

If it be true that a man may be a Christian any- 
where, it follows in the second place that we ought 
never to excuse ourselves for our lack of Christianity 
by pleading the force of circumstances, or the nature 
of our business, or the character of the place in which 
we reside. How often do we hear one say, " There is 
no use in trying to be a Christian where I am," and 
in how many cases have we a repetition of Herod's 
history when men say, " We are very sorry, yet in our 
circumstances and where we are, we are under the 
necessity of acting thus or so. " But it is never neces- 
sary to do wrong. No circumstances can compel you 
to sin. He who pleads his situation for declining to 
become a Christian would not be a Christian even if that 
were different, for, as I have said, Christianity is a 
thing of heart and life, and where that life is it will 
breast circumstances. It is the dead fish that floats 
helpless down the stream, but the living one makes 
its way up in spite of the current. What an example 
the noble Havelock gave in this regard! Men were 
prejudiced against him because being in the army he 
was a devoted Christian, and some " candid " friends 
told him that his piety stood in the way of his promo- 
tion. Now hear what he wrote to them on that subject : 

"Old and others used to tell me that it was 

believed at the Horse Guards and in other quarters that 



96 "/ KNOW WHERE THOU D WELLE ST." 

I professed to ' fear God,' as well as to ' honor the 
Queen,' and that Lord Hill and others had made up 
their minds that a man could not be at once a saint 
and a soldier. Now I dare say such great authorities 
must be right, notwithstanding the examples of 
Colonel Gardner and Cromwell and Gustavus Adolphus; 
but if so, all I can say is, that their bit of red ribbon 
was very ill bestowed upon me, for i humbly trust 

THAT IN THAT GREAT MATTER I SHOULD NOT CHANGE MY 
OPINIONS AND PRACTICES, THOUGH IT RAINED GARTERS 
AND CORONETS AS THE REWARD OF APOSTASY." That 

was rising above circumstances. That was greater 
heroism even than he showed at the relief of Lucknow, 
and that may well animate us, wherever we are, to hold 
fast our loyalty to the Lord Jesus. 

But, passing to another thought, the words of my 
text suggest the truth that it is harder to be a Chris- 
tian in some places than in others. We have seen that 
one may be a Christian anywhere, but in our earnest 
insistence upon that, we must not allow ourselves to 
forget that some places and circumstances are more 
favorable for the development of Christian character 
than others. Thus there are households in which 
it seems to be the most natural thing in the world 
for a child to grow up into the beauty of holiness, 
and there are others in which everything like loy- 
alty to Christ would meet with the bitterest opposi- 
tion, and could be maintained only by strenuous 
exertions. When the English deist visited the good 
Fenelon, he said, " If I stay here much longer I shall 
become a Christian in spite of myself. " That repre- 
sents the one sort of surrounding. But there are too 
many specimens of the other among us to require 



"/ KNOW WHERE THOU D WELLES T." 97 



minute specification here. The boy who is brought 
up in a rough, irreverent, and immoral neighborhood 
has far more to contend with if he is to be a Christian 
than he who resides in a different sort of locality. It 
is also undeniable that the environments of some pro- 
fessions or trades are more trying to those who are 
seeking to follow Christ than are those of others. 
Each, indeed, has its own hardships, and none is 
entirely free from difficulty ; but some have more than 
others. It was easier, I sometimes think, for our 
fathers a hundred years ago to cultivate Christian 
character, especially on its contemplative and devo- 
tional side, than it is for us in these days. It is easier 
for a pastor to manifest some qualities of character 
than it is for a merchant ; or rather, perhaps, I ought 
to put it thus : A merchant has more to test certain 
qualities of character in him every day than a pastor 
has in a month. When the lymphatic Dutchman, who 
took things always easily, said to his nervous and 
excitable pastor, who was speaking somewhat testily: 
"Dominie, restrain your temper," he was met with 
the pertinent and perfectly true reply, "Restrain my 
temper, sir! I would have you to understand that I 
restrain more temper in the course of a single day than 
you do in a year. " That was a difference in tempera- 
ment. But the same thing holds in occupation and 
surroundings, and while we must be religiously on our 
guard against excusing ourselves for our shortcomings 
by our circumstances, we yet must frankly acknowledge 
in our estimates of others that it is harder to maintain 
Christian principle in some places than in others. 

What then? If that be true, what follows? This, 
for one thing : the Lord knows that it is true, and he 
will estimate our work by our opportunity. Read 

7 



98 "/ KNOW WHERE THOU D WELLE ST." 

these words once more : " I know thy works and where 
thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. " We may 
be sure, therefore, that if we are in a hard place he 
will give us strength according to our day, and grace 
according to our need. He will not fail us nor forsake 
us. He prayed for Peter when Satan sought to sift 
him as wheat, and he will not forget to intercede for 
us when we are in the place "where Satan's seat is," 
that our faith may not fail. "I know where thou 
dwellest," so he can always tell where to find us. He 
can come to us at once, and give us the help we require. 
None of his communications go astray because they 
are wrongly addressed. When Paul was to be encour- 
aged he sent Ananias to him with this direction: 
"Go into the street which is called Straight, and 
inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of 
Tarsus, for behold he prayeth," which in modern 
phraseology would be — 

Saul of Tarsus, 
Care of Judas, 

Straight Street, 

Damascus. 

And when Cornelius was to be instructed he received 
this command : " Send men to Joppa, and call for one 
Simon, whose surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one 
Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seashore. He 
shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. " Or putting- 
it into its modern equivalent, — 

Simon, whose surname is Peter, 
Care of Simon the tanner, 
Seashore Cottage, 
Joppa. 



"/ KNOW WHERE THOU DWELLEST" 99 



Yes, he knows where we dwell, and all his blessings get 
into the hands for which they were intended. That 
which was meant for one is not despatched to another ; 
but each gets his own grace, and the grace is suited to 
the place in which each one dwells. So we may leave 
ourselves implicitly in his hands. He knows our cir- 
cumstances. He can tell what there is in them of 
extenuation, and what of necessity; and so he will 
make all just allowance for the one, and give all 
required assistance in the other. 

But as another lesson from the point on which I am 
here insisting, we ought to learn to be charitable in our 
judgments of others. While we hold ourselves to a 
rigid reckoning in all circumstances, let us make all 
due and loving allowance for the circumstances of 
others. The flower in the window of the poor man's 
house in the close and dingy city street may be far 
from being a perfect specimen of its kind, but that it 
is there at all is a far greater marvel than it is to find 
a superb representative of the same species in the rich 
man's conservatory ; and there may be more honor to 
one man for what of Christianity he has maintained in 
the face of many obstacles, though it be marred by 
some more or less serious blemishes, than there is to 
another, in whom are no such imperfections, but who 
has had no such difficulties. 

But coming now to another thought, let me re- 
mark, as suggested by this letter, that the harder the 
place in which we are, we should be the more earnest 
by prayer and watchfulness to maintain our Christian 
character. Where the danger is greatest, the vigilance 
should be most wary. Where the perils are most 
insidious the prayers should be most earnest. These 



100 «/ KNOW WHERE THOU DWELLESTj 



are truisms in the Christian life. We are all already 
convinced of their truth, and we all admit their 
importance; but as it seems to me, we do not suffi- 
ciently act upon them, because we have wrong ideas as 
to what the most serious things that menace the Chris- 
tian life really are. Instead, therefore, of insisting 
here on the duties of prayer and watchfulness, in regard 
to the importance of which we are already convinced, 
it may be more profitable to say a word or two on the 
question, what the hardest place in the Christian life 
really is. 

It is not always that in which there is the great- 
est external resistance to Christianity. That kind of 
opposition, indeed, may be to some temperaments 
very specially trying. But all history shows that 
the greatest danger to the Christian is not in that 
which openly assails him. An avowed antagonist he 
meets as an antagonist. He prepares himself for the 
encounter, and is rarely taken unawares by such an 
assailant. But when the ungodly meet him as friends, 
then he is in real peril. The world's attentions are 
more deadly to him than its antagonisms, and it is 
against them that he must be specially on his guard. 
When Christianity becomes respectable, and its adher- 
ents are taken notice of by those who care nothing for 
their faith, when they are invited to the feasts at which 
the world's idolaters do homage to their own deities, 
ah! then, like the Pergamenes, they are in danger of 
being swept into the doctrines of Balaam and the 
practices of the Nicolaitanes. These influences break 
down the boundary between the church and the world, 
and let the world into the church, thereby destroying 
its purity and insuring its destruction. My brethren, 
is there no danger of this in the days and in the place 



"I KNOW WHERE THOU D WELLE ST." 101 

in which we live? In the recoil against some features 
of what has been called Puritanism, have we not gone 
into the opposite extreme of seeking to propitiate the 
world, by doing everything in our power to please it ; 
and must not the upshot of all that be the amalgama- 
tion of the church with the world? And that means 
the corruption both of the church and the world; for 
if the salt have lost its savor, not only is the salt 
made useless, but that which is salted therewith is lost. 
Let us take heed to ourselves, therefore, lest we be 
deceived by the friendship of the world. The church 
is in the world, as a boat is in the sea. It can float only 
by keeping above it, and if we let it become, as I may 
say, world-logged, it will be swamped as surely as a 
boat will be that is filled with water. 

But I hasten to the last thought suggested by 
this text and the letter in which we find it: this, 
namely, that the greater the difficulty which we over- 
come in the maintenance of our Christian characters, 
the nobler will be our reward. It would be, I have no 
doubt, a little difficult for one to say, offhand and in 
a moment, which of the seven promises " to him that 
overcometh," which we have at the end of these seven 
epistles, he would prefer; but the longer I think upon 
the subject, the more am I disposed to put highest this 
one in the letter to the Pergamenes : " To him that over- 
cometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and 
will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new 
name written, which no man knoweth saving he that 
receiveth it." About the former of these blessings 
there can be no mistake, for the manna is Christ, the 
Bread of Life, and the meaning of the phrase, " I will 
give him to eat of the hidden manna " is this : " I will 



102 "/ KNOW WHERE THOU D WELLE ST." 

bring the victor into the true Holy of Holies, which is 
heaven, and will feed him there with that which 
hitherto had been hidden from his sight. I will bring 
him into glory ; and he shall see my face, and feast on 
fellowship with myself." 

That, however, is the common privilege of all the 
redeemed, and there is added an individual and dis- 
tinctive honor. "I will give him a white stone, and 
in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth 
saving he that receiveth it." Now here are three 
things, each of which is significant, — the white stone, 
the new name, and the great secret. A white stone 
was used for different purposes of old, — sometimes 
for giving a vote for the acquittal of one charged with 
a crime, sometimes as a token to secure admission to 
a banquet, and sometimes simply as an expression or 
manifestation of the love of one friend to another. 
The last seems to me very clearly to be the meaning 
here. " I will give him a special evidence of my love. " 

Then there is the new name written in the stone. 
Now throughout the Scriptures whenever a new name 
was given by God to any one, it was connected with 
some particular crisis in his history, and designed to 
be specially commemorative of that. Thus the name 
Abram was changed into Abraham when the Lord 
established with the patriarch the covenant of circum- 
cision, and first set up a visible church upon the earth, 
a thing well worthy of such special recognition. So 
when Jacob received the name Israel, it was in connec- 
tion with that night-long wrestle with the angel, which 
left its mark not only on the patriarch's body, but also 
and more particularly on his character. Now bearing 
these things in mind, we shall discover in this new 
name something distinctively commemorative of the 



"I KNOW WHERE THOU D WELLES T." 108 



personal history and conflicts of the individual on 
whom it is conferred. And when it is added that " no 
man knoweth it saving he that receiveth it," we have 
the further peculiarity that as referring to the most 
terrible struggles and most sacred experiences of the 
man, it is a matter of holy confidence between him and 
the Lord. There are secrets between the Lord Jesus 
and each of his people even now and here. He is 
something to me that he is not to any one of you, and 
he is something to each of you that he is not to me. 
The sun belongs to all the flowers alike, and yet he is 
to each something that he is not to any of the rest, 
giving to each its own distinctive appearance, its 
crimson tips to the mountain daisy, and its beautiful 
combination of colors to the violet. Just so, Christ 
has through my personal history revealed himself in 
some aspects to me that he has not to you, and 
through the personal history of each of you, he has * 
revealed himself in some aspects to each of you that he 
has not to me, and this new name at last will be the 
gathering up, so to speak, into one mnemonic word, 
of all that personal revelation which Christ has made 
to each individually through his history, experiences, 
and conflicts. Thus in the case of each of us our life 
on earth is determining the quality of our heaven, and 
the more faithful we are to Christ in spite of difficul- 
ties, and through his grace bestowed upon us, we shall 
have the more meaning packed for us into this new 
name, making it all the fuller of significance to our- 
selves, and all the more mysterious to others. If 
another were to receive that name it would be to him 
incomprehensible ; but as given to us, it will be to us 
bright with its summary of our history in the past, 
and lustrous with its promise of fellowship for the 



104 "7 KNOW WHERE THOU DWELLEST." 

future, giving to each of us something in heaven, which 
shall be his very own, — which shall be to him the 
very heaven in heaven, — a confidential sacred secret 
between each of us and the Lord. 

Now if this be so, is there not much in it to nerve 
us to constant steadfastness in the work of the Lord ? 
There is a conflict, — we cannot get rid of that ; but if 
we hold on, and hold out, we shall be conquerors, and 
this new name will tell us at the last how much more 
than conquerors through him who loveth us. 



VIII. 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 

And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest 
thou nothing ? what is it which these witness against thee ? 
But Jesus held his peace. — Matthew xxvi. 62, 63. 

Then he questioned with him in many words ; but he 
answered him nothing. — Luke xxiii. 9. 

When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he ivas the more 
afraid ; and went again into the judgment hall, and saith 
unto Jesus, Whence art thou ? But Jesus gave him no an- 
swer. — John xix. 8, 9. 

The Lord Jesus did not deal with every man in pre- 
cisely the same way. If you would not misunderstand 
my meaning, I would say that he was not equally 
frank with every man, but treated each according to 
the spirit which he found in each. Thus we read in 
one place that though "many believed in his name," 
he did not "commit himself unto them, because he 
knew all men, and needed not that any should testify 
of man, for he knew what was in man." You remem- 
ber, also, how differently he spoke to each of the three 
who wished to follow him, saying to the first, " Foxes 
have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son 
of man hath not where to lay his head ; " to the second, 
" Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach 
the kingdom of God," and to the third, "No man 
having put his hand to the plough and looking back is 



106 THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 

fit for the kingdom of God. " Similarly he expounded 
the meaning of some of his parables to his chosen 
disciples, while he withheld their interpretation from 
the multitude. And even in his education of the 
twelve "he taught them as they were able to bear it," 
keeping back from them at one time that which he 
communicated to them at a riper stage of their develop- 
ment. Thus we have the general principle established 
that when our Lord was on earth the measure of the 
fulness of his revelation of truth to men was condi- 
tioned by their disposition toward himself, and by 
their general moral character. 

Now that principle will satisfactorily account for his 
communicativeness at some times and his silence at 
others during his three trials, — first before Caiaphas, 
next before Herod, and last of all before Pilate, to 
which I purpose now to direct your attention. Caia- 
phas was surrounded by the scribes and elders, who 
had already made up their minds that the Lord was 
to be somehow got rid of; and therefore when, as a 
mere matter of form, the High Priest said to him, after 
the false witnesses had spoken against him, "Answer- 
est thou nothing? " we read that " Jesus held his 
peace." Whereas, when the same Caiaphas, as the 
President of the Court before which he was arraigned, 
put him upon his oath in the usual fashion, " I adjure 
thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou 
be the Christ the Son of God," there was an immediate, 
full, and direct response. In the one case there was a 
mere attempt to get him to commit himself. In the 
other, there was a judicial inquiry made in the solemn- 
est of all forms, and hence the difference of his 
demeanor in the one and in the other. So again, when 
Herod, for the mere gratification of a long existing 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 



107 



curiosity, and in the hope of seeing some miracle 
wrought by him, " questioned with him in many words/' 
" he answered him nothing, " because he knew when and 
how to act upon his own precept : " Give not that which 
is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before 
swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and 
turn again and rend you." The tyrant who gave Up 
the head of John the Baptist rather than offend his 
paramour, was not the sort of man to be benefited by 
any words or works of the Master in this testing hour, 
and so "he answered him nothing." In like manner 
when, after the sad and hopeless scepticism of his ques- 
tion " What is truth? " Pilate asked him " Whence art 
thou? " the Lord knew that he could say nothing that 
would be accepted by a man who was in such a spirit, 
and so " he gave him no answer. " If the Roman gov- 
ernor had waited in reverent candor for a reply to his 
former inquiry, the probability is that he would not 
have needed to make the latter, inasmuch as the quality 
of the answer would have clearly indicated that he 
who gave it came down from heaven. But to all such 
questions, now, Pilate had made answers impossible by 
the manifestation of his settled agnosticism, for if it be 
impossible to tell what truth is, or if there be no such 
thing as truth, it is vain to ask whence it comes. 

It was not, therefore, from caprice, still less was it 
from fitful sullenness, that our blessed Master in these 
trials acted, when he answered some questioners and 
declined to make response to others; and his whole 
conduct here, as in all the other scenes of his earthly 
life, is for our ensample, that we should follow in his 
steps. There is "a time to be silent," as well as "a 
time to speak ; " and the highest wisdom is often needed 
to discriminate the one from the other. But oftener, 



108 THE SILENCE OF JESUS, 

perhaps, than we wot of silence is the true policy. I 
would not go the length of him who was so continually 
saying, "Speech is silvern, but silence is golden," and 
who was breaking silence every time he said it; but 
it is not always cowardly to hold one's peace; and in 
determining whether or not we shall do so, we ought 
to have regard, not so much to our own safety, as to 
the disposition of those who have put us to the ques- 
tion. We need not gratuitously expose ourselves to 
ridicule, or make ourselves "martyrs by mistake." 
When no good end is to be served by our speech, it is 
generally better to be silent; but if we do resolve to 
speak let us remember the good rule : — 

" If wisdom's ways you truly seek, 
Five things observe with care: 
Of whom you speak, to whom you speak, 
And how, and when, and where.'''' 

But I have not chosen these texts to-day simply to 
enforce such a lesson as that, valuable as it unques- 
tionably is ; for, as I have been meditating on the 
deportment of the Living and Incarnate Word in these 
recorded instances, I think I have seen in him a close 
analogy to the Written Word. The Scriptures, which 
are so responsive to some, are silent to others. Many 
get out of them answers which are full and satisfactory 
to the questions which weigh most heavily upon them, 
while multitudes of others find nothing in them, and 
get nothing from them ; and the reason is to be sought 
for in the different disposition and character of each of 
these two classes. The extent to which the Bible is a 
revelation to any man is conditioned very largely by 
the moral character and distinctive principles of the 
man himself. Or to put it in shorter and simpler 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 



109 



form, that which a man gets out of the Bible depends 
very largely on what he brings to the Bible. 

Nor let any one suppose that this is aside from God's 
usual way of dealing with men. We find precisely 
the same thing in other departments. Take, for 
example, that of external Nature, and how familiar is 
the aphorism that " the eye sees only that which it has 
the power of seeing"! A landscape which would 
charm one beholder has little or no attraction for 
another. A poet sees in a flower " thoughts that do lie 
too deep for tears ; " but there are many like the 
pedler of whom the same poet has said that — 

" A primrose by a river's brim 
A yellow primrose was to him, 
And it was nothing more." 

One observer will see a great deal more in a picture or 
a statue than another, because of the greater measure of 
education or of taste that he possesses ; and the music 
which gives exquisite delight to a cultivated ear, is 
little better than a pleasant noise to him who has no 
perception of "the concord of sweet sounds." The 
reader takes out of a book only that in it which he can 
understand, appreciate, and assimilate. The "Prin- 
cipia " of Newton will be unintelligible to many who 
yet can drink in with delight the poetry of Cowper, 
or peruse with eager enjoyment the historical descrip- 
tions of Macaulay. We are familiar with such differ- 
ences as these, rooted as they are in some cases in 
natural aptitudes, and in others in educational profi- 
ciency. But we have the same also in the moral sphere, 
with this peculiarity, however, — that they are moral 
differences, for which, as caused by the voluntary 
action of the individuals, they are personally respon- 



110 THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 

sible. On all spiritual matters, the man receives only 
such things as accord with his spiritual nature, as he 
has chosen to make that for himself by his own pre- 
dilections and habits. The apostle has laid down the 
general law here in these words: "The natural man 
receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, neither 
can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned ; " and all the instances which we may specify 
are only illustrations of the truth of his assertion. 
Now, as it seems to me, the most common of the influ- 
ences which keep men from seeing what the Bible con- 
tains, or in the phraseology of my text, which make the 
Bible silent to their questions, are just those which we 
find in the particular individuals to whom here "Jesus 
held his peace ; " and therefore we may profitably spend 
a few moments in the consideration of them. 

First of all, then, among the influences in men 
which make the Bible a silent book to them, we find 
prejudice. The scribes and elders, at the head of 
whom was Caiaphas, had already determined that 
Jesus must be put to death. They could not endure 
the pure white light which he had made to " beat " upon 
their principles, or the withering condemnation which 
he had pronounced upon their lives. For long months 
they had been planning to get him into their power ; 
and now that he had been betrayed into their hands, 
they had no mind to allow him to escape. It made no 
matter, therefore, what he should say in reply to the 
false witnesses whom they had procured to testify 
against him. They had prejudged his case, and so 
when they asked him for an answer he "held his 
peace. " Now in the same way, prejudice, whatever be 
its source, gets nothing out of the Scriptures. If you 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 



Ill 



bring a full pitcher to the spring, you can take no 
water away from it. If the mind be already made up 
to reject the Bible, it can get no answers from it to 
any of its questions. The reader who is animated by 
that spirit will read only to sustain his prejudice, and 
will be at no loss to find something which he can 
pervert to his purpose. The man who is resolved to 
believe no good of another will either find or make 
evil in him, and the more difficult that is felt to be the 
more firmly will he hold by his antagonism. I am not 
surprised, therefore, at the way in which some men 
speak of the Sacred Scriptures, for this explains the 
whole matter. When, for example, such a thinker as 
John Stuart Mill undoubtedly was, in certain depart- 
ments, speaks of the discourses of Jesus which are 
preserved in the gospel by John as " poor stuff, " 1 
we read his words at first with a shock of surprise. 
It seems strange that such a man should pronounce 
such a judgment on sayings which have been regarded 
by others as the most sublime and the most sugges- 
tive that ever came from human lips. But when we 
remember that Mill read them with all the preposses- 
sions of one who had been educated without any religion 
at all, and in utter atheism, our wonder ceases. To 
one so "set " in his judgments, Jesus had no word to 
say. He was dumb as he was to Caiaphas and the 
priests, not because there is nothing in his discourses, 
but because Mill lacked the spiritual sense for the dis- 
cernment of what is there. The eye had not the power 
to see what was in the sayings, and he went away re- 
marking, "There is nothing." Like Nathanael, he said, 
"Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? " 
but unlike the guileless Israelite, he did not divest 

1 See Mill's " Three Essays on Religion," p. 254. 



112 THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 

himself of that prejudice when he went to "see," and 
therefore he heard no voice where so many others, 
who were to him intellectually but as "babes and 
sucklings, " heard a yoice from heaven. 

We must not, therefore, allow ourselves to be overawed 
by the mental greatness of many who have affirmed that 
Jesus in the Scriptures has given no answer to them. 
For more than intellect is needed here, — even the docile, 
candid, guileless spirit, together with the religious sense ; 
and in the absence of these, the mightiest mind will go 
astray. Here is the law : " If any man be willing to do 
his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of 
God, or whether I speak of myself. " If there be any one 
here, therefore, who is anxiously seeking to settle for him- 
self the question who and whence Jesus Christ is, — who 
is bewildered amid the conflicting testimonies that are 
borne concerning him, and who is making application 
to himself for a solution, — let me beseech him first 
and before all things else to divest himself of preju- 
dice. Dismiss all evil impressions which may have been 
made upon you by the wicked conduct of some of those 
who have called themselves by his name. Judge him 
not by the influence of this church or of that upon 
human liberty or progress. Reject him not because of 
the treatment given to science and its votaries by the 
mediaeval hierarchy. But form your estimate by what 
is said by him and written of him in this Book. 
Bring a candid, sincere, prayerful spirit to its study, 
and you will receive from it a full and satisfying 
answer ; but without these qualities in you it will give 
you no response. It yields its treasures only to the 
reverent and the humble, and so it comes that the 
things which are " hidden from the wise and prudent " 
it reveals " to babes. " 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 



113 



Nor ought it to be forgotten here that the same 
prejudice that makes the Scriptures as a whole a 
sealed book to so many operates also in the embit- 
tering of religious controversy, and the keeping of 
Christians from coming to agreement regarding the 
teachings of the Bible. That was a pregnant saying 
of Archbishop Whately to the effect that it is one 
thing to seek to be on the side of Scripture, and quite 
another to seek to have Scripture on our side ; and the 
divisions which have separated, and which still keep 
apart from each other the different churches of Chris- 
tendom have their origin largely in the fact that as a 
general rule their members have been more anxious 
£o have Scripture on their side than to be on the side of 
Scripture. They have read their own views into the 
Scriptures, rather than sought to get at the full teach- 
ing of the Scriptures. In the homely phrase of John 
Newton, "Each, on one subject or another, has been 
trying to light the candle without taking off the extin- 
guisher," and naturally they have not succeeded. But 
it is one of the most hopeful signs of our times that 
the exposition of the Scriptures has become so common, 
and that the desire of interpreters has increasingly 
come to be to get at the simple meaning of the inspired 
writers, rather than to make their statements square 
with some pre-accepted system. This is the true 
inductive method; and out of that will come a system 
which shall be distinctively Biblical rather than meta- 
physical, and which shall gather into itself the frag- 
ments of truth that are in every system. But to get 
at that we must bring unbiassed minds to the investi- 
gation, and to secure such minds we must ask that 
God, by his Holy Spirit, may open our understandings 
to understand the Scriptures. 

8 



m THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 

But I remark in the second place that habitual 
indulgence in sin will prevent us from receiving any 
answers to our inquiries from the Scriptures. For the 
aggravated sinner, who, when he came to his "narrow 
place," gave up John the Baptist to death rather than 
part with Herodias, the Lord Jesus had no answer to 
his many questions. His opportunity was gone. He 
did not take the tide when it w r as at the flood, and now 
he must go unblessed. But we see the same thing still 
in the fact that hardened sinners find no good thing in 
the Bible. The truth is that they have so perverted 
their moral judgment that they do not know good when 
they see it. The man who is constantly hammering 
boiler plates soon becomes deaf from the very noise 
which he and his fellow-workmen make by their ham- 
mering. The hand becomes horny and callous by 
the constant doing of that very thing which at first 
blistered it and made it bleed. And in the same way 
the conscience becomes hardened, and the spiritual 
perception becomes blinded by habitual sin. Thus it 
comes that the Herods of to-day get no answers from 
the Christ. Inevitably the habits of a man warp his 
judgment, and "the god of this world blinds " the eyes, 
so that a man does not believe that which would con- 
demn himself, and cannot see that which his own sin 
has hidden. There was terrible power in the retort 
given by Richard Knill to an Indian officer of dissolute 
habits, who, at the mess table, was declaring that he 
could make nothing out of the Bible because there 
were so many mysteries in it, and to whom the mis- 
sionary said, " The seventh commandment, sir, is very 
plain." We may rely upon it, therefore, that wher- 
ever the life is Avrong, there can be little enjoyment 
taken in, and little instruction derived from, the Scrip- 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 



115 



tures. Observe, I am not saying that every man who 
finds nothing in the Bible must be living a grossly 
immoral life, like that of Herod. I do not think that 
is true ; and just at present I believe that there are 
many men of excellent habits who, for other reasons, 
can find little or nothing in that which is to me the 
Word of God. But what I do say is that when the life 
is immoral the Scriptures are silent to the man. His 
conscience is too seared to be moved by their condem- 
nation, and his mind is too blind to perceive their 
heavenly beauty. If, therefore, there should be any 
here who want Christ to speak to them, — who desire to 
know whether he be anything to them or not, and if he 
be anything, what he is to them, — let me beseech them 
to put themselves into the requisite condition for get- 
ting an answer from him. If you are indulging in 
secret sin, forswear it ; if you are practising evil habits, 
break away from them ; if you are gloating in avarice 
over the hoards of covetousness, give your riches wings 
and make them fly in blessing over the land; if you 
are living in intemperance or lust, abjure it. Get back 
to the simplicity and docility of childhood. Say like 
little Samuel, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth ; " 
and then he will give you such a revelation of himself 
out of the Scriptures as shall make them forever dear to 
you, and shall lead you to say to him like Thomas, 
" My Lord and my God ! " 

But now thirdly I remark that the influence of 
sceptical philosophy makes the Bible silent to these 
who are under its power. Pilate did not believe that 
there was any truth ; or if there was any, he did not 
believe that men could come to its discovery. He 
belonged to the same class as the elder Pliny, who said, 



116 THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 

"The only certainty is that nothing is certain;" and 
filled as he was with that conviction Christ could say 
nothing that he would accept, so "he answered him 
not a word. " Thus he was an ancient representative 
of those modern philosophers, so many of whom are 
eminent in their several departments and estimable in 
their lives, who affirm that we can know nothing save 
through the senses, and that we can have certainty only 
concerning such things as we can handle and see either 
with our unassisted senses or with the aid of the 
scalpel and the microscope ; that is to say, we have no 
certainty save in regard to material things. If you 
question them as to the future life they affirm that we 
can know nothing about it. It is not certain that there 
is no such thing, neither is it certain that there is. 
We know nothing and can know nothing about it, and 
there they stand. 

Now if I were to argue the matter, I would ask how 
it comes in this prevailing uncertainty that they are 
so sure that everything is uncertain in this depart- 
ment? I would urge further that even on their own 
showing there is a possibility that there is a spiritual 
realm and life, and that being so, that it is awfully 
dangerous in them to act as if uncertainty regarding 
the existence of a future life were all the same as 
the demonstrated certainty that there is none. For 
professing to believe simply in ignorance about it, they 
live exactly as if they were sure that there is nothing 
of the kind. And to be sure of that, they must know 
and be sure of everything. I cannot forget here J ohn 
Foster's argument with the atheist when he says virtu- 
ally that " the man who affirms that there is no God 
arrogates to himself the omniscience of the very God 
whom he denies ; for if he do not know everything, then 



THE SILENCE OF JESUS. # 



117 



the very thing which he does not know may be that 
there is a God." So to be certain that there is no 
certainty possible about the future life, one must have 
all possible certainties before him, which is tantamount 
to saying that he is omniscient. Besides, we must not 
ignore our own spiritual intuitions. There is a world 
within us, as well as around us, and it is alike unphilo- 
sophical and unsafe to exclude that from our considera- 
tion on a question like that to which we are referring. 
True, we cannot gauge its phenomena by the outer 
senses, as we do those of external things; but they are 
not the less real for all that, and when they are taken 
into the account, they point unmistakably — as even 
Socrates made clear — to a life beyond, of which this 
is only the vestibule. 

But leaving the argument of the matter, I return 
to the statement that where this sceptical philosophy 
has taken hold of a man, he finds nothing in the 
Scriptures, or rather nothing in the Scriptures finds 
him. For this again is a case of prejudice. He comes 
to the Scriptures with convictions already formed 
which are at variance with their principles, and so 
it is not strange that they have nothing for him; 
and before he gets any help out of them, or any reve- 
lation that will benefit him, he must get rid of the 
false philosophy which he has accepted. When he 
comes sincerely desirous to know the truth, and that 
alone, no matter what happens to his philosophy, then 
there is hope of his finding something in it; but until 
then, to him as unto Pilate, Jesus will give no answer. 

The sum of the matter, then, is that what we get 
from Christ or from the Scriptures will depend entirely 
on the disposition which we bring to him or them ; for 



118 THE SILENCE OF JESUS. 

thus the words of the old psalm are verified, "With 
the merciful man thou wilt shew thyself merciful ; 
with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; 
with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure, and with the 
froward thou wilt shew thyself froward." 

But I cannot conclude without reference to another 
case, in which Jesus, for a time at least, held his 
peace. You remember that when the Syro-Phoenician 
woman came to him pleading for her daughter, we are 
told that he answered her not a word; but as the 
record makes apparent, that was only in order that he 
might bring her faith unto greater strength, and give 
her a richer blessing in the end. So there may be 
sincere, earnest, unprejudiced, and agonizing inquirers 
into the nature and meaning of the Sacred Scriptures, 
who as yet find nothing satisfactory in them. And to 
them, with that history in view, I would say, Do not 
give up the examiuation. Hold on in the spirit in 
which you have begun. Doubt not that the answers 
that you seek will come ; and when they do they will 
lead you to a richer and a stronger faith, while the 
experience will enable you all the more skilfully and 
successfully to deal with those who are still in per- 
plexity. See only that you keep the spirit of candor, 
sincerity, and humility, and then to you also it will 
be proved that " unto the upright light ariseth in dark- 
ness. " Above all, cultivate the spirit of prayer, and 
ever as you sit down to read the Bible ask God to 
open your eyes to behold the wonderful things which 
it contains. 



IX. 



THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 

And there came out this calf. — Exodus xxxii. 24. 

" Oh, Aaron, how could you say that ? It would 
require all the gravity of the most stolid Oriental, one 
would think, to keep you from losing countenance as 
you spoke ; and an equal measure of self-control more 
wisely directed might have enabled you to resist the 
importunity of the tribes, when, with hearts set on 
mischief, they determined to make to themselves a 
visible representation of Jehovah." 

But Aaron was not the man for a crisis like that. 
Older than Moses by three years, he was deficient in 
many of the qualities which were so conspicuous in 
his younger brother. Ready and eloquent in speech, 
he seems, like many who have been similarly endowed, 
to have been pliant and flexible in disposition. His 
nature was soft and yielding, taking impressions from 
others rather than making them on others. He had 
more of the softness of the melted wax than of the 
hardness of the die. Or to vary the illustration, he 
floated on the current which others formed, but he 
rarely, if ever, made a torrent which swept all oppo- 
sition before it. He excelled in the passive virtues 
of patience and endurance. Under the stunning blow 
which deprived him of two of his sons in a moment 
no hasty word escaped his lips ; while on the 



120 THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF, 

occasion of the Korahitic rebellion he waited with 
quiet and becoming dignity until his position had 
been established, and then he lovingly made interces- 
sion for the staying of the plague. But here, when 
firmness, promptitude, and courage were required, he 
failed. Out of a timid regard to his own safety he 
would not oppose the wishes of the people ; and so it 
happened that the spark which determined opposition 
at the right time might have at once extinguished, 
became at length a mighty conflagration, in the flames 
of which some thousands were consumed. Hence his 
conduct was condemned by Moses, and was at the same 
time displeasing unto God, for in the account given in 
Deuteronomy Moses uses these words : " And the Lord 
was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him, and 
I prayed for Aaron also the same time. " 1 But " these 
things happened unto them by way of example, and 
they were written for our admonition." Let us see, 
therefore, what we may learn from this dark and 
humiliating chapter in the history of Aaron. 

Tn the first place, we may see that the sinner 
always seeks to father his guilt upon somebody else. 
As Matthew Henry quaintly remarks in his commen- 
tary upon this passage : " Sin is a brat that nobody is 
willing to own." Aaron lays all the blame upon the 
people. Now it was true that the suggestion first came 
from them. But Aaron was there in the place of their 
ruler for the time, and it was his duty, as such, to 
oppose their evil wishes, and refuse their sinful 
request. This, however, from whatever motive, he 
weakly refrained from doing. He uttered no protest ; 
he took no means, so far as we know, to make plain to 

1 Deuteronomy ix. 20. 



THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 121 



them the sinfulness of that on the commission of which 
they were intent; he did not even so much as indicate 
that he himself could not but condemn their purpose. 
Ee simply surrendered without an effort at resistance. 
Perhaps he was afraid lest in their madness they might 
put him to death. Indeed, there is a Jewish tradition 
to the effect that Hur was slain at this time by the 
people for attempting to resist them in the carrying 
out of their design. But even if it had been true that 
Aaron's life would have been actually endangered by 
resistance, it was his duty to have resisted, and he 
might have consoled himself with the thought that he 
never could die in a better cause. But he did not 
resist; nay, he did more than yield, for he gave his 
skill, and with that his sanction, to the gratification of 
their desire. His weakness, thus, as weakness in a 
magistrate at a critical juncture always is, was worse 
than wickedness. To talk, therefore, as if the whole 
blame belonged to the people was simply to juggle 
with his conscience, while yet in spite of all his efforts 
to stifle its convictions, it would not be thus silenced. 
The people were set on evil ; that was true. But that 
was not the whole truth; for instead of seeking to 
prevent them from committing sin, he aided and 
abetted them in its commission, and so he was a par- 
taker in their guilt. 

But so it has been from the beginning. The sinner 
is always, in his own representation of the case, the 
victim of some one else. The last thing he will do is 
to make a full, fair, unequivocal, and unqualified 
personal confession, "I have sinned." Adam said, 
" The woman gave unto me, and I did eat. " Eve said, 
"The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Herod said 
virtually, " If I had not committed myself before those 



122 THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 

who were with me, I would not have consented to John 
Baptist's execution." And if we may judge of the 
prodigal in the parable from his modern representa- 
tives, who come almost daily to our doors, he must 
often enough have blamed others for his degradation 
before he came to the frank acknowledgment that the 
fault was all his own, — "his companions had robbed 
him ; " " his employers had defrauded him ; " " his 
fellow-workmen had lied about him ; " " he had been 
the victim of a conspiracy," and the like. Many 
times, I doubt not, he had spoken after that fashion. 
There needed to be endured by him the misery of the 
swineherd's life, and the hunger which the husks 
would not satisfy before he came so fully to himself 
as to say, " Father, I have sinned. " Mark, I pray you, 
where I have put the emphasis, "I have sinned." 
Most of us, I fear, when we are confessing sin, are 
thinking of the sins of other people, not of our own; 
or if we are thinking of our own we are doing our best 
the while to put the guilt of them on others. Let us 
take care, therefore, lest in exposing Aaron here 
we are not condemning ourselves, for alas ! " the heart 
is deceitful above all things. " That was a very whole- 
some advice given by an old minister to a young pastor 
in regard to the management of his church, " When 
things go wrong blame yourself first. " And it would 
be well if, when we are thinking of our own misdeeds, 
we were to act upon the same principle, and take the 
whole guilt of them to ourselves. The very attempt 
to put it upon others is an evidence that it is ours; 
for there is profound knowledge of human nature 
packed up in the French proverb, " He who excuses 
himself, accuses himself." Let us be honest, there- 
fore, and when we have done wrong, let us frankly 



THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 123 



admit it, and seek forgiveness where alone that is to 
be found. 

But, in the second place, we may see that the ex- 
cuses offered by the sinner are often as absurd as 
they are untrue. As we have seen, Aaron told a part 
of the truth, but he kept back so much of it as to make 
his statement, as a whole, false. He admitted so 
much; but he gave such a coloring to the rest as 
almost to make it appear that the greater part of the 
blame was due to the people, and the rest of it to 
Moses, because of his protracted absence, while between 
the two he had been made a victim. But now observe 
how absolutely ridiculous this other statement is: 
" They gave me their gold, and I cast it into the fire, 
and there came out this calf. " As if the whole matter 
had been a thing of merely natural evolution, and not 
of deliberate manufacture ! It reminds us of the boy, 
who, on being reproved by the schoolmaster for blowing 
his whistle, averred that he was not to blame, for " it 
whistled itself," or of the blundering servant, who 
never breaks a dish, but always says, " I was only lift- 
ing it, and it broke." Nay, we meet the same thing 
in much more important places. A moment ago I 
used the words "natural evolution," because I could 
not find any better to express my meaning. But they 
suggest at once a doctrine as absurd as this statement 
of Aaron. I do not refer, of course, to what I may 
call Theistic Evolution, which regards evolution as the 
method adopted by God in the creation of the world, 
and all the creatures upon it. With that I have no 
fault to find, save that — so far — I think it has not 
been proved, and I hold my mind in suspense concern- 
ing it, waiting for more light. But I speak now of the 



124 THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 

Atheistic or Materialistic form of that doctrine, which 
tells us that there was first a primordial germ that 
came, no one can tell how or whence, and that out of 
that, by slow degrees and a long process of development, 
under no spiritual superintendence, and simply of itself, 
there was ultimately evolved this great and glorious 
universe; and I say that we have in that something 
infinitely more absurd than this statement of Aaron, 
"I put their gold into the fire, and there came out this 
calf." There are others, also, who would have us 
believe that these Gospels of ours, so distinct from each 
other in the individuality of their styles, and in the 
purposes which they were evidently intended to sub- 
serve, are the result of what may be called a fortuitous 
combination of traditions, or a literary chance medley ; 
that some time late in the first century, if not far on 
in the second, " all who had any sayings of Christ, or 
about him, brought them and cast them together, " and 
there came out these three most remarkable tractates, 
which ever since have been the seed-bed of the moral 
and religious progress of the world. Compared with 
that, Aaron's history of the Genesis and Exodus of 
this golden calf is sober sense ; and when I take these 
things into consideration, I own that Aaron's story 
does not seem to me to be quite so extravagant as it 
did before. But I allude to these matters only to show 
that if we allow ourselves to laugh at Aaron, we must 
not regard his absurdity as entirely antiquated. 

I return now to consider his excuse as an excuse for 
sin. He means Moses to believe that the formation of 
the calf came about without his personal agency ; that 
it was — shall I say ? — an accident, or, if you will, an 
incident, — something that came without any plan or 
purpose or exertion of his own; that it was, to use a 



THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 



125 



modern phrase, something "over which he had no 
control." The nearest thing I can find to it in the 
Scriptures is the saying of David when Joab's messen- 
ger came from Rabbah bringing the news of the death 
of Uriah the Hittite. David knew what he had done 
to secure, if possible, that Uriah should be slain. He 
knew that in his own sight, as well as in God's, he was 
Uriah's murderer; but thus he salved his conscience: 
"The sword devoureth one as well as another. " As if 
he had said : " Oh, no ! it was not I. It was the sword. 
It simply came about of itself. When a man goes into 
battle he must take the risk. Why should I distress 
myself, therefore, about Uriah more than about any one 
else who was slain that day? Even if I had not written 
that letter he might have been slain just the same." 
It was a plausible subterfuge. It did very well till 
Nathan came with his touching parable of the ewe 
lamb, and thrust home its application in the terrible 
words, " Thou art the man ! " and then its efficacy was 
gone, as David cried out, "/have sinned!" He could 
no longer regard Uriah's death as a mere incident of 
war. He was convicted there and then as Uriah's 
murderer, and his prayer became, "Deliver me from 
blood guiltiness, God, the God of my salvation ! " 

No, friends, sin is never an accident. It is never a 
thing that " comes out " of itself. It is a voluntary act, 
and for every such act the actor is responsible. We 
cannot do wrong until we choose to do it, and the 
choosing is a free act of our own. I say a free act ; 
that is, a thing from which we might have refrained, 
if we had pleased. No man, no set of circumstances, 
can compel us to will ; that we always do for ourselves, 
and for that we are responsible. For an accident, 
pure and simple, with which our wills have had nothing 



126 



THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 



to do, we are not responsible. But if that which we 
call an accident has come to pass through our voluntary 
agency, it is no longer an accident, and we may not 
take refuge in calling it by that name; while even 
for things called accidents, if they have happened 
through our carelessness or neglect of duty, we must 
be held culpable for such carelessness or neglect. 
These are distinctions clearly and fully recognized in 
human law, and they hold equally under the divine. 
Let us take heed, therefore, lest we deceive ourselves 
by giving a wrong representation to ourselves of our 
conduct ; but, acting always as in the sight of God, let 
us do everything in his name, and then we shall be 
found equal to all emergencies, and be sustained in 
every crisis. 

But the course of thought which we have followed, 
besides exposing the weakness of some common excuses 
offered by men for their sins, suggests three practical 
inferences, with the briefest mention of which I will con- 
clude my discourse. We cannot but learn, in the first 
place, to be specially watchful over ourselves. The sin- 
ner in this case was Aaron, who had been the companion 
and coadjutor of Moses all through the conflict with 
Pharaoh in the land of Egypt; who had with Hur 
stayed up the hands of the great leader during the 
battle of the people with the Amalekites, and who was 
to be the first High Priest. If there was one man in 
the encampment who could be relied upon during the 
absence of Moses, that man surely was Aaron ; and yet 
he proved unfaithful. What an illustration this of the 
wisdom of the Apostle's words: "Let him that think- 
eth he standeth take heed lest he fall. " It is easy to 
stand when we are m no conflict. But when a crisis 



THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 



127 



is upon us that is another matter, and then it is often 
found that the braggart in the barrack is the coward 
on the field. Remember Peter, and do not make his rash 
protestations lest you be put to shame as he was by his 
fall. Do not boast what you will do, but rather pray 
that you may be strengthened to do what you already 
see and know to be right. 

Now, for a second lesson, we may learn to be chari- 
table to others when they prove weak in the hour of 
temptation. This was Aaron who yielded, and Aaron 
was in the main a good man. We cannot estimate 
aright all the things that need to be taken into account 
in judging how guilty a man has been in a given case. 
It is very noticeable here, too, that Moses said nothing 
to Aaron about his guilt after he had received these 
trifling excuses. He probably saw that, even in 
Aaron's own estimation, they were only subterfuges in 
which he could not rest a moment, and so he left him 
to his conscience, which he was sure would not let him 
have peace until he went to God for forgiveness. But 
while, so far as we see, he said nothing to Aaron, he 
spoke to God on Aaron's behalf. Remember the words 
I have already quoted from Deuteronomy, " The Lord 
was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him, and 
I prayed for Aaron also the same time." Let us, 
therefore, imitate Moses in this regard, and when we 
hear others speaking in an extravagant and absurd 
fashion, as they seek to excuse themselves for their 
sins, let us take it as a hopeful sign that they think 
they need to appease their consciences with some 
opiate, and let us go to our closets and remember them 
upon our knees before our God. 

Finally, let sinners be encouraged after they have 
fallen, to return to God in penitence. This Aaron was 



128 THERE CAME OUT THIS CALF. 

afterwards made High Priest, — afterwards, observe, — 
and so he had obtained forgiveness from on high; yes, 
and he was all the better fitted for his priesthood 
because of this experience. You remember the words 
of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "Every 
high priest taken from among men is ordained for men 
in things pertaining to God that he may offer both 
gifts and sacrifices for sin. Who can have compassion 
on the ignorant, and on them that are not of the way, 
for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. " 
Aaron learned how much he was thus encompassed by 
this experience. But he learned, also, how freely 
God can forgive ; and so if there are any here who have 
been sinning and excusing themselves, let them learn 
to give over all their foolish and vain and utterly 
ineffectual efforts to explain away their guilt. Let 
them go to God, through Christ, in frank confession 
and with earnest prayer, and he will receive them 
graciously. He will love them freely, and will ulti- 
mately enable them to utilize the lesson learned by 
them through that experience in ministering to the 
spiritual welfare of others. 



X. 



THE RESIDUE. 

And the residue thereof he maketh a god. — Isaiah xliv. 17, 

Ridicule, though not in any proper sense of the word 
a test of truth, is yet a very effective means of expos- 
ing error. No doubt it is liable in unskilful or unscru- 
pulous hands to be greatly abused, and when it is used 
to give point to personal attacks, or to make a man's 
natural defects for which he is in no way responsible 
the laughing-stock of the community, it is worthy of all 
reprobation. But when it deals purely with principles 
and practices, and shows the grotesque side of an 
error, or the ludicrous absurdity of an argument, it is 
then one of the most deadly weapons in the armory of 
truth. Indeed, when kept within its own proper limits, 
and employed by a man as eminent for principle as for 
humor, it is well-nigh irresistible. Even error, when 
it has the laughers on its side, becomes formidable ; but 
when they are brought over to the cause of truth, they 
carry, for the time at least, everything before them. 
No man relishes the putting either of his conduct or 
of his reasoning into a ridiculous light. Most people, 
I imagine, would sooner be condemned for a real fault 
than laughed at for a harmless foible ; and some who 
have faced the cannon on a battle-field without a quiver 
have flinched before a battery of derision. One can 

9 



130 THE RESIDUE. 

laugh with the multitude, and think little or nothing 
of that ; but when the multitude is laughing at him he 
wants to hide himself somewhere. Every one who is at 
all familiar with literature will easily recall instances 
in which ridicule was made exceedingly effective on 
the side of truth. Erasmus did good service with 
it in his " Praise of Folly. " Pascal, in his " Provin- 
cial Letters," laughed the Jesuits into defeat, and did 
more for the Jansenists than J ansen himself. Every 
one who has read Hugh Latimer's paragraph, in which 
he makes use of the countryman's saying that " Ten- 
terden steeple was the cause of Goodwin sands," or that 
other in which he describes the devil as the busiest 
bishop in the land, or the scathing sarcasm of the pas- 
sage in which John Knox, after a reference to this very 
chapter, asks which is the greater miracle-worker, 
the priest who makes the wafer into God, or the 
mouse whose profane teeth immediately makes it back 
again into bread, — will have some idea of the havoc 
which ridicule can do to the cause of an opponent; and 
in more recent times the " Eclipse of Faith " by Henry 
Rogers was not more powerful in its serious argumen- 
tation than it was in those Socratic passages, wherein, 
by the method of dialogue, the sceptic was made to turn 
upon himself the laughter of all the bystanders, 

Now it is not strange that a weapon so powerful 
should be occasionally employed by the prophets. 
Elijah mocked at the priests of Baal, and the humor of 
Elisha made the Syrians ridiculous, when, under color 
of bringing them to himself, he led them into the very 
capital of their enemies. But no more splendid instance 
of its use is to be found in the whole compass of litera- 
ture than that made by Isaiah in the chapter from which 
my text is taken. Arguing against idolatry, his double 



THE RESIDUE. 



131 



thesis is that they who make graven images are vanity, 
and that the images made by them are worthless; 
and to prove both propositions he goes into a descrip- 
tion of the process by which idols were made, and then 
shows us the finished figures carted away like other 
lumber, not able to help themselves, but oppressing 
even the animals that had to draw them, and so led 
into a captivity from which they could not save them- 
selves. Then he contrasts all that with the glorious 
majesty, uncreated might, and wondrous grace of 
Jehovah, who could say, " I am the Lord, and there is 
none else ; there is no God beside me. I girded thee 
though thou has not known me. ... I am the Lord, 
and there is none else." 

That is the argument ; but now see how its strength 
is increased by the description of the idol-maker. It 
is like one of those progressive cartoons which we 
occasionally meet with in illustrated papers, and in 
which we have a whole history condensed into some 
five or six scenes. First we see^ him planting an 
ash-tree; next, after the ash-tree has grown, we be- 
hold him hewing it down ; next we have him dividing 
it into different segments ; next we have him putting 
one of these into the fire and sitting down before it 
_ to warm himself, while at the same time he is cook- 
ing his dinner over it. Then out of the last log he is 
represented as carving the likeness of a man, and at 
the end we see him on his knees in reverent worship 
before his own handiwork. These are the pictures; 
and then underneath we have this comment: "They 
have not known nor understood, for he hath shut their 
eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts that they 
cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, 
neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say I 



> 



132 THE RESIDUE. 

have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also, I have 
baked bread upon the coals thereof. I have roasted 
flesh and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof 
an abomination ? Shall I fall down to the stock of a 
tree ? He feedeth on ashes. A deceived heart hath 
turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soul nor 
say, is there not a lie in my right hand ? " 

But now let us turn and look at one or two things 
suggested by the text. 

First of all, then, it reminds us that man must 
have some object of worship. A great German phi- 
losopher and theologian resolved the religious senti- 
ment into a sense of dependence; but whether he 
was right or not in doing that, it is indisputable 
that the religious sentiment itself is natural to man. 
So soon as he begins to think he is met by the 
questions, whence came I ? what am I here for ? and 
whither am I going ? and he cannot give even an 
approximate answer to these inquiries without having 
suggested to him the ideas of God and a hereafter. 
These may, indeed, be the remnants of a primeval reve- 
lation ; and some countenance is given to that view by 
the fact — which all historical investigation is tending 
to confirm — that the earliest religion was monothe- 
istic; and by the other fact, that even among the most 
degraded savages are found the ideas of God and of the 
future life in some form or other. Corruptions of 
various sorts have gathered round them, showing that 
the moral development of man, when left to himself, 
is always downward ; but though covered over with the 
rubbish of ages, these ideas are still there ; and so 
everywhere there are the acknowledgment of superior 
beings of some sort, and religious rites more or less 



THE RESIDUE. 



133 



crude. This I know has sometimes been controverted ; 
but our foreign missionaries are all but unanimous 
regarding it, and as a specimen of their testimonies, I 
quote the last which has come before my eye, in the 
recently published autobiography of John G. Paton, 
missionary to Tanna and Aniwa, — a book which ought 
to be read by all who are interested in knowing some- 
thing of the stuff of which our foreign missionaries are 
made, the hardships which they are called to endure, 
and the success by which their patient years of labor 
and trial are generally crowned. The following are his 
words : " Let me here give my testimony on a matter of 
some importance, — that among these islands, if any- 
where, men might be found destitute of the faculty of 
worship, men absolutely without idols, if such men 
exist under the face of the sky. Everything seemed to 
favor such a discovery ; but the New Hebrides, on the 
contrary, are full of gods. The natives, destitute of 
the knowledge of the true God, are ceaselessly groping 
after him, if perchance they may find him. Not find- 
ing him, and not being able to live without some sort 
of a god, they have made idols of almost everything, — 
trees and groves, rocks and stones, springs and streams, 
insects and other beasts, men and departed spirits, 
relics, such as hair and finger-nails, the heavenly bodies, 
and the volcanoes; in fact, every being and every- 
thing within the range of vision or of knowledge has 
been appealed to by them as God, clearly proving that 
Humanity, however degraded, prompts man to worship 
and lean upon some Being or Power outside of himself 
and greater than himself, in whom he lives and moves 
and has his being, and without the knowledge of whom 
his soul cannot find its true rest or its eternal life." 
Add to this the witness borne very lately in my 



134 THE RESIDUE. 

hearing to a circle of ministers by one who has been 
recently in India, to the effect that the native religions 
there are all religions of fear, and that the object of the 
worshippers is to propitiate their divinities and so 
keep them from sending injuries upon them, and you 
will see, that, in connection with their worship, there 
is a kind of sense of sin, and a feeling of the need of 
something akin to salvation. But however it may be 
explained, there is at bottom in every man that which 
impels him to have some object of worship. He can- 
not do without that. 

And so in the second place we have this other fact 
suggested by the text ; namely, that if a man knows not 
or has forsaken the living and true God, he fashions a 
god for himself. This is illustrated by all the idola- 
tries of the world. They are the abortive efforts of 
men to find the true God, and the idols which have 
been graven, as Isaiah has phrased it in the context, 
" after the figure of a man according to the beauty of a 
man," are but the rude expressions of that desire 
which God has met and satisfied in the incarnation of 
his Son. But when we speak of men fashioning a god 
for themselves we are apt to think only of vulgar and 
material idolatry, as it is in pagan lands, and to forget 
those "idols in their hearts," to use Ezekiel's phrase, 
which men have set up even where the Gospel has 
been proclaimed, and which are as numerous among 
ourselves as graven images are in India or Japan. 
That which a man flees to, in such circumstances as 
the Christian is in when he flees to Christ, is for him 
an idol. Now how many of these have men fashioned 
for themselves in the midst of us ! Some are seeking 
satisfaction in fame ; some in exalted worldly position ; 



THE RESIDUE. 



135 



some in riches, some in pleasure. There are more 
shrines for the worship of Bacchus in one of our great 
cities than there were in all ancient Greece. The 
temples of Venus are as vile, as loathsome, .and as 
debasing in New York to-day as was that infamous one 
at Paphos, which Herodotus has described. Mammon, 
too, has its myriad altars, on which reputation, influ- 
ence, sometimes even life itself, have been sacrificed. 
But what need I more here? Every man who is not heart 
and soul and life devoted to the service of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, has made for himself some idol or idols 
to which the homage of his soul is given. He may try 
to divide his allegiance between his idol and the Christ ; 
but he cannot thus serve two masters. Christ must 
have the whole heart, or he has really none of it. He 
must reign "without a rival," and "with no partial 
sway," and wherever that sovereignty is disputed, that 
which disputes it is an idol which the man has fash- 
ioned for himself. My hearer, have you any such idol 
in your heart ? Search and see, and if you have, make 
your prayer in the words of the well-known hymn, — 

" The dearest idol I have known, 
Whate'er that idol be, 
Help me to tear it from thy throne, 
And worship only thee." 

But I find suggested by Isaiah's argument here this 
other thought, that the idols fashioned by men for 
themselves cannot deliver them when they call on 
them. What a withering exclamation that was which 
Hosea addressed to the men of Israel, "Thy calf, 
Samaria, hath cast thee off ! " We can easily see and 
understand how the graven image is impotent to help 
in time of need, for there is truth beneath the sarcasm 



136 THE RESIDUE. 

of Isaiah's words : " Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth ; 
their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle; 
your carriages were heavy laden ; they are a burden to 
the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together ; 
they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are 
gone into captivity. " They could not help themselves ; 
much less, therefore, could they help others. But what 
was true of these external images is equally so of those 
"idols in the heart," of which I have just spoken. 
The narcotic to which the sufferer betakes himself for 
comfort becomes at length a task-master and tyrant, 
whether its name be alcohol or opium or cocaine. 
"Riches make themselves wings. They fly away as 
an eagle toward heaven." The thief may steal them, 
or the fluctuations of the market may shrivel them up, 
so that the millionnaire of yesterday may be the bank- 
rupt of to-morrow. The most carefully coddled reputa- 
tion may be lost, and the popular leader of the present 
hour may be hissed and forsaken before the year is out. 
Nay, sooner or later there shall come to each of us the 
hour which shall try every man's god, of what sort it 
is, when everything that is perishable shall be lost, 
and only that which is incorruptible shall remain. 
Alas for us, then, if we have made false gods our con- 
fidence ! for we shall then be everlastingly without a 
god. Nay, not merely without a god, but without 
(rod, and that is hell ! Oh, my hearer ! think of that, 
and now, while you may, choose the good part which 
shall never be taken away from you, — a God — the God 
— that is able and willing to help you in time of need. 
Such a God is J ehovah-Jesus. He will confer on you 
the true riches of holy happiness, which nothing can 
corrupt, nor aught destroy. He will give you abiding 
and eternal good. What he is to you at any time, that 



THE RESIDUE. 



137 



he always will be. No change in your circumstances 
will make any alteration in him. He will not fail 
you in trial, or leave you in uttermost despair. He is 
"the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." If he is 
your present delight, that delight will be perpetual. 
If he is your peace now, that peace will be eternal. If 
he is your God now he will be your portion forever. If! 
but why should there be any if in the case ? Let your 
soul say now unto this Lord, " Thou art my God. Thou 
wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive 
me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and 
there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. " 

But I cannot conclude without pointing out to you the 
keen sarcasm lurking under the word " residue " here. 
See how this man postpones his attention to religion 
until after other things have been taken care of by him. 
The first part of his ash-tree is devoted to his own 
comfort ; he makes a fire with it, whereon he baketh 
bread and roasteth roast, and is satisfied. With the 
next part of it he feeds the fire until it glows with heat, 
and as he sits in front of it he says to himself, " Aha ! 
I am warm. I have seen the fire ; " and it is only with 
the " residue " that he makes his graven image. You 
smile at all this perhaps ; but take care lest you be not 
unconsciously thereby condemning yourself, for it is 
not such an uncommon thing after all, even in this 
enlightened age and land, for people to give to God 
nothing but a " residue. " The youth starts out in life 
with high ambitions. He will go to college ; he will 
be the prize- taker of his class; he will fit himself for 
standing in the front ranks in later life. All these he 
succeeds in accomplishing; but thus far there has been 
no devotion in his heart to God. He enters into active 
life, toiling and studying all the while with the most 
self-denying industry; he rises in his profession; he 



138 THE RESIDUE. 

attracts to himself the attention of the people ; he is 
chosen to a position of honor and emolument. And as 
he sits in his library looking around him at his cher- 
ished books, and thinking of his past, he in effect says, 
"Aha' I have distanced all my competitors, I have 
gained position and wealth and comfort." But all 
these years there has been in his heart no thought of 
God. He may have gone, indeed, to some house of 
worship, either for the sake of conforming to fashion, 
or to please his pious wife; but no throb of gratitude 
has bent his knee to Jehovah, no impulse to live for 
Christ has quickened his pulse. His religion thus far 
has been only the worship of himself. At length, how- 
ever, the beat of the muffled drum is heard approach- 
ing; sickness and its attendant weakness come upon 
him, and when these admonish him that he is not to 
be on earth forever, he bestirs himself, and says, " Now 
it is time to seek the Lord. " And what is that but 
just a parallel to this idolater with his ash-tree log, 
" The residue thereof he maketh a god " ? Now I do not 
affirm, I dare not affirm, that if even then a man were 
to seek God sincerely through J esus Christ he would 
not be graciously received, for I serve a master who 
has said, " Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise 
cast out." But still, what a poor, paltry spirit that is 
which would keep the best of life for self, and then 
come at last with the beggarly "residue," and give 
that to God ? If you cannot die without devotion to 
Christ, neither can you live to any purpose without it. 
Religion is just as important and essential all through 
life as it is at the end of life. If it is of any value at 
all at any time, it is of the same value at all times. If 
it is of any importance at the last, it is of supreme 
and infinite importance from the very first. Therefore, 
let it have your earliest attention. " Seek first the 



THE RESIDUE. 



139 



kingdom of God and his righteousness, " and that will 
make your life, as a whole, one sacrificial offering of 
praise to him to whom you owe your comfort in time 
and your happiness in eternity. ye young people, 
will you lay these things to heart, and begin early — 
begin now — to serve the Lord ! And if there be any 
among you of maturer life verging toward old age, and 
having nothing before you now but a poor " residue " of 
life, come with that and give it to the Lord. You may 
well "be ashamed of your offering; but yet in his won- 
derful grace he will accept it, and bless you forevermore. 

There are other departments in which the same 
thing as I have now exposed may be observed, as for 
example, in our disposal of our time, in our use of our 
money, and the like. It is too often only a " residue " 
we give to God. Instead of beginning the day with 
him, we postpone our converse with him until at the 
evening's close we have neither strength nor inclina- 
tion nor time for any devotional reading or for medita- 
tion or for prayer. Instead of giving the Lord of the 
first fruits of our gains, we lavish expenditure on our- 
selves ; and after we have gratified taste and pride and 
love of ostentation, we then give a part of " the resi- 
due " to the service of the Lord. Ah ! friends, is that 
a caricature; or is it not rather a characteristic of 
much of the religion so called of our times ? I leave 
the question with each of you. It will bear to be well 
pondered; and if it be that you find that you have 
been acting after that fashion, let me beseech you to 
revise the whole plan of your life, to repent, and to 
give your hearts to the Lord, — your heart, your whole 
heart; and then all that you do will be worship 
acceptable, each act in its own department, to God 
through Christ Jesus. 



XI. 

THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 

Saying that he was worthy . . . I am not worthy ... 
I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. — Luke 
vii. 4, 6, 9. 

The history to which these texts belong must be 
familiar to you all, and as the details connected with it 
will come up incidentally in the sequel of the dis- 
course, I will not spend a moment now in their recapit- 
ulation. We have here three estimates of one and the 
same character. Each one of these, from the standpoint 
of the speaker, was strictly true, and all of them were 
perfectly consistent with each other. Now my purpose 
is to show you that both of these statements concerning 
them are correct, and it may be that some valuable 
lessons for ourselves may be suggested in the process. 

In the first place, then, we have the estimate 
formed of this man by his neighbors. He was a cen- 
turion residing in Capernaum, and his servant, who 
was dear unto him, was lying at the point of death. 
He heard that Jesus had come to the town, and wish- 
ing to obtain a cure for his attendant, he sent the 
elders of the place to the Lord, that they might request 
him to come and heal the dying man ; and it was while 
making this appeal for him that they said, "He is 
worthy for whom thou shouldst do this, for he loveth 



THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 141 



our nation, and hath built us a synagogue. " Now in 
regard to this testimonial, two or three remarks may 
be made. For one thing, it must, I think, be conceded 
that these elders had enjoyed the best opportunities for 
forming a judgment regarding him. He lived in the 
midst of them. They saw him, not merely on review 
days, or on great occasions, but when he was in undress 
and off his guard. They were not so likely, therefore, 
to be imposed upon as those were who met him only 
on formal business. One may get himself up for an 
emergency, or put a restraint upon himself in certain 
circles and for special reasons ; but he cannot keep up 
these appearances at home and among his neighbors 
all the time. There is an abandon in his demeanor in 
familiar intercourse, which altogether unconsciously 
to himself reveals the sort of man he is ; and so those 
who live closest to him and have known him longest, 
know him also best. They can tell whether the polish 
of the public appearance be that of the thin veneer 
or that of the solid wood, and their judgment is usually 
accurate. Sometimes, indeed, they may err, either from 
prejudice or from perversity, but commonly they are 
correct. Those who live in the same house with us, 
those who are dealing w T ith us every day in the same 
trade, those who dwell with us in the same street, 
marking our constant goings out and comings in, are 
commonly not deceived in the reading of our character. 
That is the origin of the proverb that "no one is a 
hero to his valet;" and he who stands successfully the 
ordeal of close companionship for months, whether 
in travel by land or voyaging by sea, or in the transac- 
tion of daily business, may fairly be pronounced % 
genuinely good man. On the other hand, when those 
who are nearest us are those who most condemn us, we 



142 THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 

have reason to fear that their judgment is just, and 
that we are worthy of their reprobation. 

But these elders had another advantage in coming to 
a knowledge of this centurion's character. He had been 
long enough among them to give them opportunity of 
testing him. He was not a new-comer into the midst 
of them. They did not form their opinion from an 
acquaintance of a few days; but they had watched 
him closely, and had scrutinized him thoroughly. He 
was an officer of the Roman army, commanding the sol- 
diers who were posted in Capernaum for the purpose of 
looking after the tribute. As such, therefore, he 
would be at first an object of aversion to them. But 
as he continued among them he so bore himself toward 
them, performing painful duties with delicacy, mani- 
festing the strictest justice in all public affairs, and 
showing a kindliness of disposition in all ordinary inter- 
course, that gradually their prejudices melted away, 
and they forgot that he was a Roman officer, because 
he was so good a man. 

Nay, more, they saw that as he dwelt among them, he 
became an inquirer into their religion, and a student of 
their Scriptures, so that by and by he gave up his idola- 
try, and then after a time became a believer in Jehovah. 
This drew him more closely to the people, gave him a 
deeper interest in their nation, and a more practical re- 
gard for their worship, which he showed in rearing for 
them a synagogue at his own expense. Thus, if I have 
read his history aright, this act of his, on which the 
elders dwelt with such loving gratitude, was not a mere 
matter of policy (as it would be if an English official 
were to build in India a heathen temple), but an honest 
tribute to the truth which he had found in the Old 
Testament Scriptures, and a loving offering to the Lord 



THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 143 

whom he had discovered in them. It would have been 
a great thing for a Jew to have received such a testi- 
monial from Jews ; but that one belonging to the army 
of their oppressors should have earned from official 
Jews, like the elders of Capernaum, such a commen- 
dation as that which they here give him, — that was 
something almost unprecedented, and showed that he 
to whom it was given was indeed a man of more than 
ordinary worth. 

Now I grant that even one's neighbors may some- 
times be wrong in their reading of his character. He 
may offend them, and so be condemned by them, 
because just from his very goodness his principle will 
not allow him to take the course which they desire. I 
grant, too, that when a man is actuated simply and 
only by the desire to stand well with his neighbors, he 
is working from a very low motive. I do not forget, 
either, that the Saviour has said, " Woe unto you when 
all men speak well of you." Yet all that does not 
militate against the fact that it is a good thing when a 
man (like Demetrius) has "a good report of all men," 
if it can be added, u and of the truth itself." And 
usually, in the long run, when a man has a good report 
of the truth, he will have the same also of his neigh- 
bors. I say in the long run. There may be ebbings 
and flowings in the popular estimate, but give them 
time enough, and even the people, in what we call 
their sober second thought, will come right. If a 
man be standing in the right place, then no matter 
what fluctuations there may be in his reputation, if he 
only stand still long enough, the people will come 
round to him, and those who have been nearest to him 
will be the first to come and the most enthusiastic in 
their coming. But the same thing is true on the other 



144 THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 

side. If a man be acting a false part, then whatever 
may be his temporary success, he is sure to be ulti- 
mately found out, and his neighbors will be the first to 
make the discovery, and the loudest to utter their con- 
demnation. 

Tell me, then, what those who are closest to a 
man think of him after their experience of him for 
a course of years, or how the members of a com- 
munity regard a man who has been continuously 
before them for half a generation, and you tell me with 
approximate accuracy what the man really is. The vox 
populi, indeed, is not always, if it be ever, the vox 
Dei, and I should be sorry to give countenance to such 
a sweeping assertion. But still, as a general rule, 
every man, in the long run, gets just about that amount 
of appreciation among his fellows to which his worth 
is entitled. And if one has come to be regarded by his 
tenants as a grasping landlord ; or by his employees as 
a hard master ; or by his customers as a " smart " fellow, 
ever ready to take any advantage that offers ; or by his 
household as stern, imperious, overbearing, and the 
like, he has need to look well to it, for they are very 
likely to be right. It is bad to seek the approbation of 
others by pandering to their wishes, and even when we 
do so, we do not get their real approbation after all ; 
but it is certainly no better to deserve their condemna- 
tion by our conduct toward them, and it will do us no 
harm to remember that as one has said, "There are 
other woes in the Bible than that which says, 'Woe 
unto you when all men speak well of you. ' " Find out, 
if you can, how your neighbors and those closest to you 
regard you and speak of you, and if their estimate be 
unfavorable, it will be well to examine yourself and 
see that it be not also accurate. 



THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 145 

But in the second place let us look at this centu- 
rion's estimate of himself. "I am not worthy that 
thou shouldest enter under my roof. " Now it is clear 
that these are honest words. This man was not feign- 
ing humility. There was no hypocrisy in his protesta- 
tion. It was the consciousness of his unworthiness that 
impelled him at first to seek the intercession of the 
Jewish elders on his behalf. And with the conception 
which before long we shall see that he had of the 
nature and dignity of Christ, the very last thing that 
he would have thought of doing with him would be to 
attempt to appear before him as other than he really was. 
His was a genuine feeling of unworthiness, just like 
that which is characteristic in greater or less degree 
of every truly good man among ourselves. The man 
who thinks himself good is not nearly so good as he 
thinks he is, while he who is most conscious of his 
imperfection is a great deal nearer perfection than 
he supposes. Humility is one of the constant attend- 
ants of moral excellence, and the more a man grows in 
holiness, the more is he disposed to say with this cen- 
turion, "I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter 
under my roof." 

Now it becomes an interesting question, why it 
is that the good man's estimate of himself should 
thus differ from that formed of him by his neigh- 
bors and friends. And in answer to that two things 
may be advanced. It is owing, doubtless, in some 
measure to the fact that he knows more about him- 
self than others do. I dare say that there is not one 
of us who would not shrink from letting others into 
the innermost secrets of his heart. We feel that if 
even those to whom we are dearest should know the 
thoughts that flit across our minds; the imaginations 

10 



146 THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 

that fill our souls in moments of interval between 
serious things ; the struggles which we have with mean- 
ness, or covetousness, or evil desire, or ambition, or 
envy ; the defeats which we encounter in our battlings 
with self; the trail of sin which is over our very devo- 
tions, and the like, they would spurn us from their 
embrace ; and the consciousness of that keeps us from 
self-conceit. Who does not know something of that 
experience which Archbishop Trench has packed so 
beautifully into these expressive lines ? 

" Lord, many times I am aweary, quite, 
Of mine own self, my sin, my vanity; 
Yet be not thou — or I am lost outright — 
Weary of me. 

" And hate against myself I often bear, 
And enter with myself in fierce debate; 
Take thou my part against myself, nor share 
In that just hate. 

" Best friends might loathe us, if what things perverse 
We know of our own selves they also knew: 
Lord, Holy One, if thou who knowest worse 
Shouldst loathe us too ! " 

Nothing more than such an experience is needed to 
make plain to us the point on which I have been speak- 
ing, and so I pass on to say further that the discrepancy 
between the good man's estimate of himself and that 
formed of him by others may be explained by the fact 
that the better a man is the loftier does his ideal 
become. His standard rises with his very excellence. 
We see this illustrated intellectually in the matter of 
knowledge. The more a man learns, the more he 
learns of his own ignorance. We are accustomed to 



THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER, 147 



say of the conceited young man, who talks as if what 
he did not know was not worth knowing, that when he 
is twenty years older he will not know so much; and 
Paul was speaking truth, though he seems to me to have 
been just a little satirical, when he said, " If any man 
think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing 
yet as he ought to know. " The wiser a man becomes, 
he is always the more humble and the more modest. 
Nor is it difficult to understand how this comes about, 
for the more a man knows he comes just at so many 
more points into contact with the unknown. Each 
new acquisition reveals to him some new defect, each 
new answer to a question starts up some new inquiries ; 
and thus knowledge is not only an increase of light, but 
also, if I may so express myself, a discovery of new 
darkness. Or to take the mathematical illustration 
which Chalmers was so fond of using in this very con- 
nection, " The wider the diameter of light, the greater 
is the circumference of darkness." 

But it is quite similar with holiness. The higher 
one grows in holiness, the loftier holiness seems to him 
to become ; or, exchanging the abstract for the concrete, 
the liker I become to Christ, the more I see in Christ that 
I have yet to imitate. That which is highest in me is 
my appreciation of and longing for that which is still 
higher. Then from the other side, that which is holiest 
in me is my consciousness of even the least impurity 
within me. So, as one grows in grace, he feels the 
evil of things in himself which in the beginning of his 
spiritual career he hardly looked upon as sins at all ; 
and that often leads him to use language of self- 
abasement, when he is far advanced in the Christian 
life, which he did not use, and could not honestly have 
used, at its commencement. The deepest conviction of 



148 THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER, 

sin is not that of the newly awakened inquirer, but that 
of the loftiest saint; for to his cleansed eye and to his 
purged heart sin is a far more repulsive thing than it 
can possibly be to one who has just discovered himself 
to be a sinner. So the better a man is, his standard 
has risen just so much the higher, and he is the more 
conscious of personal unworthiness. 

We have a beautiful instance of all this in the 
Apostle Paul. In his first epistle to the Corinthians, 
which was one of the earliest of his letters, he thus 
writes of himself: "I am the least of the Apostles, 
that am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I 
persecuted the church of God." Some five or six years 
later, during his first imprisonment, he wrote his 
epistle to the Ephesians, and in that, referring to 
himself, he says, "Unto me, who am less than the 
least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should 
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of 
Christ. " Then some years later still, in the last letter 
that he wrote, while he was confronting martyrdom, 
and knew not the hour when he would be led forth 
for execution, he wrote, "This is a faithful saying, 
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. " 
Mark not " was, " but " I am chief. " Now observe the 
gradation as he grew in grace, — first, the least of the 
Apostles; next, less than the least of all saints; and 
last of all the chief of sinners, — not because he was 
becoming worse, but rather because he was all the time 
advancing in holiness. So it always is, and so we have 
no difficulty at all in explaining how the good man 
grows in a sense of personal unworthiness the better he 
becomes in character. So true is this, my brethren, 
that you may set it down as incontrovertible, that when 



THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 149 

a man congratulates himself on his personal worth, he 
is really unworthy. He who is satisfied here has never 
really eaten, or, in the words of the hymn, — 

" Whoever says I want no more, 
Confesses he has none." 

That is a sure, unfailing test. Satisfaction with our- 
selves is a clear indication that God has no complacency 
in us, and if this centurion had said, " I am worthy," he 
would have manifested utter unworthiness. 

But we come now to the third estimate of this 
man's character; that, namely, of the Lord Jesus him- 
self, who said regarding him, "I have not found so 
great faith, no! not in Israel." When the Saviour 
appeared nearing his house, the centurion sent friends 
to meet him, saying, "Lord, trouble not thyself: for I 
am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof ; 
wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come 
unto thee ; but say the word [for so the Revisers have 
it], and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a 
man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and 
I say unto one, Go, and he goeth ; and to another, Come, 
and he cometh ; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth 
it." His meaning was that just as he himself belonged 
to a great organization, in which the word of the 
emperor was supreme, and each in his own rank had 
to obey the orders of those who were above him, all 
being under one individual head, so he recognized that 
the universe was under law to Christ. Diseases would 
do Christ's bidding, just as he had to obey his general, 
and his soldiers or his servant had to obey him; and so 
it was not needed for the healing of his servant that the 
Lord himself should go into the house, or, indeed, do 



150 THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 

anything save speak the word that should order the 
disease away from him. 

Now nothing more than that explanation is needed to 
make evident the centurion's faith. See in what a 
position he placed Christ. He regarded him as the 
supreme power in the universe, having all its resources 
at his command. He saw not only that he was the 
Messiah, but also that he was God incarnate, and 
therein lay the superiority of his faith to that of any 
Israelite. Not any one of the Apostles as yet had 
reached the lofty altitude on which this Eoman sol- 
dier stood ; not even the eagle-eyed John had thus far 
perceived all that the words of the centurion expressed, 
and so he was placed above them all. 

It would be wrong, however, to suppose that this faith 
was a thing of sudden growth. He had already received 
Jehovah as the only true God. He had been a diligent 
student, as I believe, of the Old Testament. He had 
seen therein that constant outlook for something better, 
which is the characteristic of all the writers under the 
old dispensation, and he had been led to think that 
Jesus was indeed " the coming one " to whom the 
prophets pointed. He must have heard of Jesus, too, 
before this interview with him. He must have known 
much of his sayings and doings, and so he was already 
prepared to be a disciple ; but in this supreme moment, 
by the grace and spirit of God, a great impulse was 
given to his faith, so that it sprang up from compara- 
tive weakness into a strength till then unparalleled, and 
the expression of that faith drew out the testimony of 
the Lord to its genuineness and greatness. 

But I wish you to notice that this testimony to his 
faith is virtually also a testimony to his character; 
for faith is not cherished except by a certain character. 



THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER 151 

The Pharisees and Scribes had seen more of Christ 
probably than this centurion had ; and yet they had no 
faith in Christ at all, because their characters were 
different from his. Faith is thus a moral test. It is 
a mistake to suppose that every man, or any man, will 
believe if only the evidence is sufficient. That may be 
true in mathematical science, but it will not hold in the 
moral sphere, for there you will sometimes find such 
perversity that no degree of evidence will produce 
faith. There is need of the unbiassed disposition, the 
sincere search for truth, and the earnest willingness to 
obey the truth when it is found, before there can be 
faith. And so this testimony borne by Christ to the 
greatness of the centurion's faith is at the same time 
an attestation of the excellence of his character as a 
simple, open-minded, earnest man, honestly seeking and 
eagerly welcoming the truth. 

Then again the faith which is thus rooted in character 
reacts upon character. As a man believes, so he 
becomes. If a man believes in Buddha, he will think 
Buddha ; he will live Buddha ; he will become Buddha. 
And equally if he believes in Jesus Christ, he will 
think Jesus; he will live Jesus; he will reproduce 
Jesus in his character and conduct. And so the man 
to whom the Redeemer could and did say, " I have not 
found so great faith, no, not in Israel, " received one of 
the noblest eulogies that ever came even from his lips, 
and earned a distinction that is infinitely beyond all 
Greek and Roman fame. 

Such, then, are the three estimates here given of the 
character of this one man. They were all true from 
the point of view of their authors, and that is an envi- 
able person yet in whom such testimonies unite. 



152 THREE ESTIMATES OF ONE CHARACTER. 

But the last is the main one after all, carrying all that 
is valuable in the other two within itself. The real test 
is, What does the Lord Jesus Christ think of me ? For 
if he approve, it does not much matter what men may 
say, and if he condemn, the good opinion of my neigh- 
bors will not make up for his displeasure. But to 
secure his approval we must have faith in him, and how 
does the case stand with us in regard to that ? " Dost 
thou believe in the Son of God ? " That is the deciding 
question ; for if thou believest in him thou wilt think 
little of thyself, and the men around thee will take 
knowledge of thee that, like him, thou goest about 
doing good. We may have the approbation of Christ, 
while men regard us with disapproval. But if we 
regard ourselves with conceit, that is a proof that we 
have not yet found the true value of Christ, and that he 
cannot speak well of us. The first and the last of these 
estimates, namely, those of our neighbors and of our 
Lord, may for some reason or other be for a time at 
variance. But the second and third, if we be Chris- 
tians indeed, never can be dissociated, for satisfaction 
in Christ implies dissatisfaction with self, and the 
more we think of Christ and believe in him the less 
ever will we think of self. Let us look into ourselves, 
therefore, and see which rules within us, self or Christ ; 
and if it be self, let us seek such faith in the Saviour 
as shall make us entirely one with him, so that we can 
say with Paul, " I am crucified with Christ : neverthe- 
less, I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the 
life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith 
of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself 
for me. " 



XII. 



SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 

And Satan answered the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, 
yea, all that a man hath, will he give for his life. — Job ii. 4. 

The book of Job is a poem, dramatic in form, and 
consisting for the most part of a series of conver- 
sations between Job and his friends. We have there- 
fore to be on our guard as to the degree of authority 
which we give to the statements of the different speakers. 
For it is a well-understood principle, that in the books 
of Scripture the inspiration of the writers does not 
stamp with the divine sanction and approval the state- 
ments which they simply report as having been uttered 
by others. Thus in the book of the Acts of the Apostles, 
when Luke quotes, apparently word for word, the letter 
written by Claudius Lysias, the chief captain of Jeru- 
salem, to Felix the governor at Cesarea, it would be 
ridiculous if we should conclude, from the presence of 
that epistle in the narrative, that Claudius wrote it by 
divine inspiration. What the inspiration of Luke does 
guarantee is, that we have from him an accurate re- 
production of the letter which the chief captain sent. 
Now in the same way, in the case before us, the in- 
spiration of the author of the book of Job is one thing, 
that of the speakers whose addresses he reports is quite 
another. His inspiration vouches for the correctness 



154 SATAN 9 S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 

of the report which he gives of what they said ; but each 
of the speakers is responsible for his own utterances. 

Hence in seeking to establish some doctrine by divine 
authority, we must beware how we use citations from 
the book of Job. Bildad, Zophar, Eliphaz, Elihu, and 
Job spoke each for himself. The sentiments of each 
are his own and not those of God ; for we find at the 
close that Jehovah blames them all for serious error 
in one particular or another. They are all accurately 
reported. None of them is misrepresented. For so 
much the inspiration of the author of the book is a 
voucher. But they were not themselves inspired men, 
and their utterances must not be ascribed to the Holy 
Ghost. I am the more particular to set this before 
you in the clearest possible manner, because Coleridge 
in his " Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit " brings for- 
ward this very book as furnishing what he believes to be 
an unanswerable argument against the common view of 
inspiration ; I say the common view, for though he speci- 
fies the theory of verbal dictation, yet his argument, if 
sound at all, would be equally strong against the plenary 
theory, which is that commonly held on the subject. Here 
are his words : " Say that the book of Job throughout 
was dictated by an infallible intelligence, then reperuse 
the book, and still, as you proceed, try to apply the 
tenet ; try if you can even attach any sense or semblance 
of meaning to the speeches which you are reading. 
What ! were the hollow truisms, the unsufficing half- 
truths, the false assumptions and malignant insinuations 
of the supercilious bigots who corruptly defended the 
truth ; were the impressive facts, the piercing outcries, 
the pathetic appeals, and the close and powerful reason- 
ing with which the poor sufferer, smarting at once from 
his wounds, and from the oil of vitriol which these 



SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 155 



orthodox liars for God were dropping into them, im- 
patiently but uprightly and holily controverted this 
truth, while in will and spirit he clung to it, — were all 
dictated by an infallible intelligence ? Alas ! if I may 
judge from the manner in which both are indiscrimi- 
nately recited, quoted, appealed to, preached upon, by 
the routiniers of desk and pulpit, I cannot doubt that 
they think so, or rather perhaps, without thinking, take 
it for granted that they are so to think." That is a 
pretty strong indictment ; and in so far as it is a 
protest against indiscriminate quotation from this book 
as if all the interlocutors were divinely inspired, I find 
no fault with its vehemence. But I take leave to say 
that it is a caricature even of the verbal theory of inspi- 
ration, — not to speak of the plenary, which more fully 
commands our assent. For every man of sense, if he 
allows himself to think a moment on the subject, sees 
a difference between a correct representation of the 
sentiments of another, and the indorsement of these 
sentiments. Now it is the former of these that inspira- 
tion secures in the case of the parties to the debate 
which is here reported and reproduced, but not the latter. 
If anything were needed to place that beyond dispute, 
it is the fact that Job's wife is represented as urging 
him to curse God and die ; for we cannot imagine that 
she was moved by the Holy Ghost to say anything 
like that. Besides, in at least two of the scenes, Satan 
is one of the speakers, and obviously he did not speak 
by inspiration of God. While, therefore, I have an- 
nounced the words of Satan as my text for this morning, 
I do so not (as a pulpit routinier~) out of any deference 
to their authority, or because I believe that they were 
" dictated by an infallible intelligence ; " but because I 
believe that they give a truthful report of Satan's esti- 



156 SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 

mate of human nature, and because I wish to show you 
the falseness of that estimate, despite the air of plausi- 
bility with which it is invested. It is commonly sup- 
posed, indeed, that for once at least the " father of 
lies " spoke the truth, when he gave utterance to the 
sentiment before us ; but in this at least, if we take his 
words unqualifiedly, men give him more credit than he 
deserves; and perhaps before I conclude, you will agree 
with me that when he spoke thus he was laboring under 
somewhat of a delusion. 

I need not spend time in discussing the numerous 
explanations which have been given of the proverbial 
expression, u Skin for skin." In effect they all amount 
to this, — that a man will give up everything to save his 
life ; and the insinuation of Satan is, that Job served 
God from merely selfish considerations, so that if the 
alternative should be presented, that he must either 
give up God or give up his life, he would unhesitatingly 
prefer to keep his life. In all this, however, Satan was 
only measuring Job and mankind generally by his own 
bushel ; and for the honor of humanity, as well as 
because I may make it the occasion of presenting to 
you some important practical suggestions, it may be well 
to spend a little time in disposing of his assertion. 

Now in the outset, we must admit that there is a 
degree of truth in it. If that had not been the case, 
it would not have been so dangerous ; for a lie pure, 
simple, and unadulterated does little harm. It needs to 
have some truth mixed up with it before it can gain 
currency. As one has pithily said : " A lie always 
needs a truth for a handle to it, else the hand would 
cut itself which sought to drive it home upon another. 
The worst lies therefore are those whose blade is false, 



SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 157 

but whose handle is true." Now the handle in which 
the blade of this lie is " hafted," is the fact that there is 
an instinctive love of life in every human being. Life 
is sweet, even with all its trials, sorrows, and distresses, 
and we cling to it to the last. Nay, just as the ivy 
twines itself most closely round the walls that are most 
ruined, so sometimes the tendrils of the soul entwine 
themselves most firmly round the tabernacle when it is 
nearest decay. No one loves to die merely for the sake of 
dying. Even the Christian Apostle did not desire " to be 
unclothed," except as the prerequisite to being " clothed 
upon " with his house which was from heaven. It needed 
all the revelation which had been made to him by the 
Lord Jesus through his death and resurrection to evoke 
in him the longing to depart which he has so touchingly 
expressed. And if that were so with him, it is not sur- 
prising that others who have not his faith should pas- 
sionately cling to life. The poor woman who had spent 
all her living upon physicians is only a type of many who 
have impoverished themselves in seeking to prolong their 
days ; and there was a trembling pathos underneath the 
words of a wealthy man, when he said, " I lost my health 
in the making of my fortune, and now I am spending my 
fortune in the effort to get back my health." 

Nor must we forget that this love of life is not only 
an instinctive principle, but also within certain limits 
to be presently defined a positive duty. The precept, 
" Thou shaft not kill," refers to myself as well as 
to my neighbor, and requires me to use all lawful 
means for the preservation of my own life, as well as 
of the lives of others. Hence, a contempt for the 
laws of health, a needless exposure of ourselves to 
danger, and a neglect to use means for the prolongation 
of life, are sins, not only against our physical constitu- 



158 SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 

tion, but also against the moral law. So much apparent 
foundation, then, there is for Satan's assertion. We 
instinctively cling to life, and it is our duty to use all 
proper means for the preservation of our lives. But 
still for all that the assertion, in its universal form and 
as it stands, is false. It is not true to the history even 
of unregenerate men ; far less is it true to that of those 
who have been born again. 

It is not true to the history of unregenerate human 
nature. Even in the unconverted, there are principles 
— some evil and some good — which, becoming domi- 
nant, subordinate to themselves the love of life. The 
passions of hatred and revenge have stirred up men to 
deeds which, even at the moment of their commission, 
they knew would make their lives a forfeiture to the law 
of the State ; and yet, with the certainty of a felon's 
death before them, they have deliberately braved it. 
But there are other illustrations of a nobler sort. The 
love of adventure has drawn many from the comforts 
and security of home, and led them to risk their lives in 
its gratification. The poet has immortalized the soldier 
" seeking the bubble reputation, even in the cannon's 
mouth ; " and history is always enthusiastic over the 
patriotic warrior who has given his life for the unity 
and the liberty of the country which he loves. Nay, 
even in the estimation of those who have not heard, or 
who hearing have disregarded, the Gospel of Christ, you 
will find it admitted that there are some things which 
are of more importance than life. The student of an- 
cient Roman history cannot read without a thrill of 
emotion the account of the Roman matron who, as she 
plunged the dagger into her heart, exclaimed, " Of what 
use is life, now that my honor 's gone ? " And at the 



SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 159 



foundation of that code of honor, so called, in which 
duelling held place, there lay this principle which Satan 
here had entirely forgotten that men cared for, — namely, 
that truth and integrity and purity of character ought 
to be dearer to a man than his life. Observe, I am 
not now vindicating any such method of asserting that 
principle as duelling furnished. I am only directing 
attention to the fact that the principle was there. So, 
again, the love of knowledge has ? in not a few, predomi- 
nated over the fear of death, which is but the other side 
of the love of life. Science has had its martyrs as well 
as religion ; and from the day when the elder Pliny per- 
ished in the first eruption of Vesuvius down to that of 
African and Arctic exploration in our own century, 
there have been many who have been willing to brave 
hardship, and even to sacrifice life, if only they might 
add to the sum of human knowledge, and have their 
names emblazoned among those who have discovered 
the most cherished secrets of nature. 

And in still another department, how many under 
the impulse of common humanity have forgotten to 
care for their own lives in their eagerness to save 
their fellow-men ? When has the life-boat lacked vol- 
unteers to man her as she put out through the surf 
to take the exhausted sailors from the battered wreck ? 
And when the fire has gained the mastery over the 
burning dwelling, and flame and smoke are issuing 
from many quarters, have we not known some gal- 
lant fellow rush in to save a life, alas ! only to lose 
his own? Or, to take another sort of illustration, 
when fever is doing its deadly work in the tenement 
houses of the city, and the hospitals are filled to over- 
flowing with its victims, have you ever known the medi- 
cal men to quail, or from the love of their own lives, to 



160 SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE, 

flee from the post of duty ? As one has truly said : 
" There are no men-at-arms who fight more truly and 
heroically the battles of their country than the hard- 
pressed medical officers, who, in a time of epidemic, 
when nine tenths of the world have been three or four 
hours asleep, pass through the ranks of the fever-smitten 
before retiring to the short and often broken rest that 
must refresh them for another day of battle with the 
grim destroyer." I may not say that in every instance 
this is done from consciously Christian motives. In 
many, indeed, I know that such is the case ; but in oth- 
ers I have not the same assurance, and so I put it down 
to the credit of the natural benevolence of the human 
heart. Now, with such cases in mind, — and they might 
be indefinitely multiplied, — I am warranted, am I not, 
in the name of humanity, not to speak now of Chris- 
tianity, to call Satan's words in the text a libel, and to 
repudiate his assertion that, as a universal thing, a man 
will give all that he has for the saving of his life ? 

But if this be true, even of unrenewed humanity, 
how much more so is it of those who have imbibed the 
spirit of the self-sacrificing Christ ? Let us, therefore, 
turn now and see whether the child of God is so utterly 
selfish as Satan here insinuates that Job was. That 
which in a man is what we call the ruling passion, rules 
over the love of life as well as over other principles 
within him. Now, in every really godly man the ruling 
passion is love, — the love of God, and the love of his 
neighbor for God's sake ; and that dominates over all 
things else. In proof of this I point you, first of all, to 
the case of Job himself. For all so sanguine as Satan 
was, he did not succeed in prevailing upon the patriarch 
to renounce his allegiance to Jehovah. With great 



SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 161 

adroitness and cunning, indeed, he enlisted Job's wife 
and three friends upon his side ; but they did not shake 
the sick man's confidence in God. Still, through all his 
troubles, he held by the hand of the Most High, and 
amidst the accusations which his monitors heaped upon 
him, he said, " I know that my Redeemer liveth ; and 
though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in 
my flesh shall I see God." And so, in spite of his 
vain confidence, Satan was disappointed and discomfited. 
Think, again, of those noble Hebrew youths as they stood 
before Nebuchadnezzar, with the furnace blazing in their 
sight, and tell me if they are meaning to give up every- 
thing for their lives, as they say, " If it be so, our God 
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning 
fiery furnace, and he will deliver us ; but if not, be it 
known unto thee that we will not worship the golden 
image which thou hast set up." Did Daniel give up all 
he had for his life when, in order to keep a conscience 
void of offence toward God, he went unfalteringly into 
the lion's den ? Did Peter and John selfishly consider 
what would become of themselves when, before the 
council, they said so courageously, " We ought to obey 
God rather than men " ? And where was this cold cal- 
culating spirit of self-preservation at any price in Paul 
when he exclaimed, " None of these things move me ; 
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might 
finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have 
received of the Lord " ? " But what shall I more say ? " Is 
not the jubilant shout of praise raised by the noble army 
of martyrs yonder the most conclusive proof that Satan 
spoke words of calumny, and not of truth, when he said, 
concerning the people of God, and Job as one of them, 
" Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give 
for his life " ? 

11 



162 SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 



And now having, as I trust successfully, vindicated 
our common humanity from the sweeping accusation 
which Satan has here brought against it, let me con- 
clude by drawing two practical inferences from the 
course of thought which we have followed : — 

In the first place, then, let me say that we may learn 
from this subject that one of the greatest dangers which 
beset the soul may be expected in the very region to 
which this assertion of the Prince of Darkness makes 
allusion. In its broad and unqualified form his affirma- 
tion is false. Yet we must not shut our eyes to the fact 
that through that very love of life, to which he here re- 
fers, many of his most insidious temptations may be 
expected to come to us. With this estimate of human 
nature in his mind, he has kept continually appealing to 
men's love of life ; and it is astonishing in how many 
instances he has at least partially succeeded. He tried 
it with Abraham, and so prevailed for a time, even over 
the Father of the Faithful, that he lied unto the king of 
Egypt. He tried it with Isaac, and he who had not 
flinched from his father's sacrificial knife upon Mount 
Moriah lied to Abimelech to save his life. He tried 
it with Elijah, and dauntless as the Tishbite usually 
w^as, he fled from before the face of Jezebel. He tried 
it with Peter, and the man of rock quailed for the mo- 
ment before the maid-servant, lest he should be recog- 
nized as the assailant of Malchus. We may expect, 
therefore, that, pursuing the same tactics, he will make 
similar approaches to us. Many a man has been kept 
from giving himself wholly to Christ ; and many of 
those who in the judgment of charity are really his 
have been seriously entangled by considerations sug- 
gested by him, or by his agents, bearing on their per- 
sonal safety or on their temporal prosperity. He puts 



SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 163 



the matter thus : " If you become a Christian, you can- 
not carry on the business in which you are engaged ; or 
you will lose your situation ; or you will forfeit the 
patronage of some worldly friend ; or you will entail 
great suffering on yourself ; or bring yourself to penury 
and want." Or perhaps he puts it thus : " You must 
live, therefore you cannot give up this work in which 
you are engaged, however much your conscience may 
condemn it. You must live." Now, in answer, I might 
refer you to the well-known story of the first Napoleon. 
On being informed that an army contractor had cheated 
the government by supplying the troops with useless 
articles at a high price, he sent for him to inquire into 
the matter. " How is this ? " said he. " I understand 
that you have been breaking your contract." " Sire," 
was the answer, " I must live." " No," replied the mon- 
arch, " I do not see the must. It is not necessary that 
you should live ; but it is necessary that you should do 
right." And though perhaps the measuring line which 
he used with the contractor might in many things re- 
veal his own misdeeds, yet his words were true. There 
is no absolute necessity that we should live ; but while 
we live it is an absolute duty that we should do right. 

But the same truth will come with infinitely greater 
force from the lips of the Lord Jesus himself. When 
Satan, still acting on this his favorite theory of human 
nature, came to him in the wilderness, as he was an 
hungered, and said, " If thou be the Son of God, com- 
mand that these stones be made bread," he made re- 
ply, " It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth 
of God." And that meant that life consists not in 
eating bread, but in obeying God. There is a life 
higher, nobler, and more delightful by far than that 



164 SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE 

which is supported by bread. It is the life of commun- 
ion with God, the life of the service of God, the life 
which is hid with Christ in God ; and if that can be 
maintained alone by resisting unto blood, — yea, unto 
the death of the body, striving against sin, — then let 
the body die that it may be maintained. That loftier 
life is indestructible save by our own act. When char- 
acter dies it is always by suicide. It must be ours for- 
ever, unless we barter it away ourselves for some lower 
and less worthy object. Let us, then, be on our guard 
against all enticements that would tempt us to make 
that deplorable exchange. Let us, not, however hardly 
we may be bestead, or however sorely we may be threat- 
ened, sell this birthright for a mess of pottage. Even 
if we should be at " the point to die," let us show the 
tempter that Christ and his salvation are of more value 
in our eyes than all present comforts, or the satisfaction 
of all physical necessities. Let us make it evident to 
him that the Word of God, the true, the right, the good, 
are nobler things to us than the continued existence of 
our bodily lives ; and let us be ready to sacrifice the 
earthly and the physical for the heavenly and the spirit- 
ual, because we love him who died that we might live. 
Let no one bribe us, either with pieces of silver, or 
wedges of gold, or Babylonish garments, or peace, or 
ease, or security, or whatever else, to betray him or to 
give up his service. The temptation to do that assails 
us in many ways every day we live. It meets us in the 
home and on the street ; in the store and on the ex- 
change ; in the social circle and in the halls of legisla- 
tion. Wherever we turn, some appeal to our selfishness 
is made, with the view of getting us to do that which 
our Lord disapproves ; but whenever it is made to us, 
or in whatever form it presents itself, let us spurn it 



SATAN'S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 165 



from us with disdain, lest peradventure the deep con- 
demnation of others, which leaped to our lips as we 
read the newspaper yesterday morning, should be quoted 
against ourselves at the last, and we be thus judged out 
of our own mouths. 

But my second and final inference from this subject 
is that the noblest greatness of which a man is capa- 
ble consists in falsifying this assertion of Satan. Who 
so great as the Lord Jesus Christ ? And wherein 
does his greatness consist ? Listen to himself : " Who- 
soever will be greatest among you, let him be your ser- 
vant, even as the Son of man came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many." That is to say, his highest greatness was mani- 
fested in giving his life a ransom for many. And was it 
not even so ? How true are the words of the hymn: — 

" To toil, to weep, to die for me, 
Thou earnest, not thyself to please." 

Now, since we call ourselves by his name, we ought to 
be characterized by his unselfishness. There never was 
a hero to be compared witli him who gave himself on 
Calvary a sacrifice for human sin ; and that only is a 
heroic life which forgets itself — which, if need be, sac- 
rifices itself — for the same cause as that in which he 
died, and for the furtherance of which he now lives on 
high. Let us not, therefore, be continually thinking of 
ourselves, — our interests, our comforts, our lives, our 
safety ; let us take a wider range, and seek how we may 
best honor Jesus, and serve our generation by his will. 
How grandly Paul had learned that lesson of the cross 
when he said, " According to my earnest expectation, 
and my hope, that as always, so now also, Christ shall 
be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by 



166 SATAN* S ESTIMATE OF HUMAN NATURE. 

death ! " There was the true greatness of self-forgetting 
heroism. Ah, me ! how our littlenesses and meannesses 
are rebuked and put to shame by this noble " imitation 
of Christ." And if before the life of the servant we are 
thus abashed, how can we contemplate the cross of the 
Master without a blush ? In the presence of that infi- 
nite sacrifice, how paltry do our schemings and expedi- 
ents for the protection of our interests and lives appear ! 
Brethren, let us reform all this. Let us ask, and ask 
on until we get, a fresh baptism of the spirit of Christ, 
that we may have self within us crucified, and that the 
love wherewith he was animated may fill our hearts. 
It is not enough to sing, as we often do, the glowing 
words of Watts, — 

" Were the whole realm of Nature mine, 
That were a present far too small ; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 
Demands my soul, my life, my all." 

We need to have our whole lives set to that sublime 
key. We need to have our entire selves hallowed by 
that lofty consecration. And when they who bear the 
Master's name shall thus be distinguished by the Mas- 
ter's likeness, then Satan himself will be compelled to 
acknowledge his error, and to say, " Skin for skin, yea, 
all that the Christian has, will he give for his Lord." 



XIII. 



THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 

I being in the way, the Lord led me. — Genesis xxiv. 27. 

The chapter from which these words are taken pre- 
sents us with a series of charming pictures of Oriental 
life, which would be only blurred and defaced by any 
efforts of mine to illustrate them, or even to point 
out their beauties. First, we have the scene between 
Abraham and his servant, in which one knows not 
whether to admire more the uncompromising loyalty 
of the patriarch to his God, or the intelligent and 
unswerving fidelity of the steward to his master. 
Then comes the quiet eventide by the well of Nahor, 
with the good Eliezer upon his knees, offering that 
simple, direct, matter-of-fact prayer, which showed 
that he knew, from long familiarity with God, how to 
approach him in supplication. Next we have Rebekah, 
with the courtesy of true heart-kindness, watering the 
camels of the stranger, and showing therein the very 
traits of character which fitted her to be the wife of 
Isaac. Then we are introduced into the home of 
Bethuel, where, while yet the traveller stands fasting 
at the table which has been spread for his refreshment, 
we hear him tell his errand, with the simple naivete* of 
earnestness and truth, and when he has finished speak- 
ing he is referred to Rebekah, who makes no objection 



168 THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 



to return with him to Canaan. Next we have the 
departure of Rebekah from her father's house, accom- 
panied by the faithful Deborah, and followed by the 
tearful benedictions of her kinsfolk, "Thou art our 
sister; be thou the mother of thousands of millions, 
and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate 
them. " And last of all we have another eventide scene, 
this time beside the encampment by the well Lahai- 
roi. Isaac has gone out into the fields to meditate. 
Yonder in the distance, having alighted from her camel 
when she was told who he was, Rebekah comes to meet 
him; and in that holy hour, without the agency of 
priest or sheik, but with the sanction and approval of 
Him whose hand had been so visible through all the 
negotiations, the marriage bond is sealed between 
them under the twinkling lustre of the silent stars. 
"And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, 
and she became his wife." 

Said I not truly that we have here a series of de- 
lightful pictures of Oriental life ? But we value the 
history, not for its artless beauty so much as for its 
practical suggestiveness. It might be used to illustrate 
the power of home influence, inasmuch as the faith of 
Abraham reappears with exquisite simplicity in his 
servant. Or we might employ it to exalt the sanctity 
and emphasize the importance of marriage; for though 
at first sight it seems that Isaac and Rebekah had less 
to do with this old courtship than any of the other 
parties named, albeit they were the two principally 
concerned ; yet the care taken by Abraham, as he put 
his servant under oath, and the holy fidelity manifested 
by Eliezer, may well instruct those among us who, 
unmindful of the important issues that hang upon the 
conjugal relationship, treat the whole matter as a joke, 



THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 



169 



or are well content if they can only secure by it a 
handsome dowry. Not without its significance, too, in 
this old history, is the dignity that it gives to domestic 
service. On the one hand we have Abraham's steward 
making his master's interest his own, and on the other 
we have Rebekah's nurse leaving with her the home of 
her childhood, and going with her to begin that career 
of confidential companionship with her and her chil- 
dren that ended more than eighty years after, when she 
was buried at Bethel beneath the oak called, because of 
the sorrow at the funeral, "allon-bachuth," the oak 
of weeping. 

But I do not mean now to discourse at length on 
any of these topics. For at least thirty years I have 
never read this chapter without feeling that, beautiful 
as all other things in it are, the words which I have 
chosen as my text are its brightest gem. They have 
been with me in all seasons of depression or perplexity. 
When I have been weary they have been as a staff to 
support me. When I have been faint, they have been 
as a cordial to revive me. When I have been in dark- 
ness, they have been to me as a guiding star. And I 
can never forget how often during those anxious days 
I spent, now just twenty-one years ago, upon the wintry 
Atlantic, after I had left my home, my country, and 
my church, and before I knew a single person in the 
congregation of which here I was to be the pastor, I 
threw myself upon this expression, " I being in the 
way, the Lord led me," and was comforted in the 
assurance, which has been fully verified, that he who 
guided Abraham's servant in the minutest matters, 
would conduct me rightly. 

Without further preface, then, let me bring before 
you these two things, — the way and the leading. It 



170 THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 

is only when we are in a certain way that we have a 
right to expect that God will lead us, and even in 
that way there is only one kind of leading that we are 
warranted to look for. Let me try to illustrate these 
two things. 

And first as to the way. This servant was evidently 
in the way of duty. He was not there on a mere pleas- 
ure trip, or of his own motive and choice. He had 
accepted a commission from his master, and thus far 
he had faithfully followed the instructions which he had 
received. He had not hesitated a moment until he 
had reached the early Mesopotamian home of Abraham, 
and now the problem was how he was to find out the 
descendants of Nahor, and secure an entrance into their 
household. Nor in solving that was he unmindful of the 
use of means, for, knowing the customs of the country, 
he had halted at the well, where at that hour it was 
most likely that he would meet with some of those con- 
nected with the place. It was not, therefore, until he 
had done all that he could that he awaited the guidance 
of J ehovah. 

Now in all this there is much to direct us, for it 
holds true universally that the way to get more light 
is to follow fully that which we already possess. 
This applies to intellectual doubt; and in these days, 
when so .many are perplexed as to what the truth 
is in reference to many things which are considered 
to be of great doctrinal importance, it is well to 
remember that the path to peace lies through the 
performance of those duties in regard to which we are 
already certain. The first thing, therefore, which the 
inquiring spirit has to do is to consider and answer 
faithfully these questions : " Am I acting up to the con- 



THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 171 

victions which I have ? Have I done everything which 
I hold to be right ? Is my conduct abreast of my con- 
science, or am I living below even that standard which 
I have accepted ? When the case is so stated, it may 
sometimes appear that the perplexed one is not so eager 
to receive more light for the attainment of something 
that yet lies beyond him, as he is to get an excuse 
for neglecting obligations which he feels that he has 
ignored. And if that be true, his earliest care should 
be to remedy such a practical inconsistency, for it is only 
through the fullest use of that which is known, that we 
pass to certainty as to those things of which we are still 
in doubt. And in every case we may say that God leads 
the doubter into faith through the way of obedience to 
those principles which he has already received. 

Amid all a man's perplexities there are some things 
which he must hold as certain, and when he is making 
the best of these he is putting himself into a position 
to welcome the first glimpses of new light. Sometimes 
an evil life has led to a shipwreck of the faith ; but 
always a conduct that is up to the level of conviction 
clarifies the spiritual perception, for has not Jesus 
said, " If any man be willing to do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine whether it be of God, or whether 
I speak of myself." So if there be any young man 
before me who is sunk in the miry pit of doubt, let him 
hold fast by those things which are yet certain to him, 
and faithfully and earnestly act up to them, for it is 
by these that God will ultimately lift him out and set 
his feet upon the rock of faith. 

But the same thing is true in reference to conduct. 
When in our daily lives we are brought to a stand, 
and see no outlet, then if we are where we are, be- 
cause we have been faithfully and conscientiously 



172 THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 

doing what we believed to be right, let us stand still 
and pray and wait, sure that God will open up our 
way. But if we have brought ourselves into the 
difficulty by our own wilfulness or waywardness, or 
through the seeking of our own pleasure, and not at 
all because of any moral obligation that was pressing 
upon us to be there, then let us retrace our steps, and 
do what our consciences and the Word of God unite in 
declaring to be right, and we shall find that our per- 
plexity will soon come to an end. It makes all the 
difference in the world as to matters of conduct, whether 
we are simply seeking our own gain, our own pleasure, 
our own honor, or whether we are striving to meet the 
obligations which God has laid upon us. In the former 
case we have no right to expect God's guidance; in the 
latter we may be sure that it will not be withheld. 
And that accounts for the common experience among 
all Christians, that so long as they look at their con- 
duct as between them and God, they have rarely any 
difficulty in coming to a decision regarding what they 
should do, but as soon as they cumber the question 
with considerations of personal interest, or of the good 
opinion of others, perplexity begins. Cultivate, then, 
the habit of walking in the way of duty, and you will 
find it a way of light. It is, for the most part, when 
you want an excuse for evading what you know to be 
duty that anxiety begins. If you desire to keep a good 
conscience, and at the same time have all the world's 
good things, — to serve God and mammon, to be on both 
sides at once, — then you will be in constant bewilder- 
ment, you will be forever balancing probabilities, and 
never at rest; and what is more, not even God himself 
can give you rest while you pursue that course, for it is 
only when you are in the way of duty that he will lead 



THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 



173 



you. How simple all this looks ! Would to God that 
we might all follow this plain maxim, and so have 
perfect peace. 

But again, this servant was in the way of faith. 
He had a firm childlike and sincere belief in God. He 
did not think of Jehovah as of one far off, who took 
no interest whatever in human affairs. He did not con- 
sider that he was too insignificant for the governor 
of the universe to care for. But he had the convic- 
tion that the Lord was very near him, even at his 
side, and he spoke to him with the open-heartedness 
and confidence of a little child with his mother. His 
faith thus was no mere make-believe. God was to him 
a real personal being, as interested in the success of 
his mission as he was himself, and able to help him in 
his present emergency. Now we do not wonder that 
such an one was guided. And we may, perhaps, find 
the secret of our harassments and worries from day to 
day, in the fact that to the most of us God is little 
better than an abstraction, — a far away grandee, who 
has so much else to do that he has no opportunity to care 
for us. I almost shudder to use these words, and yet 
in faithfulness I have been compelled to employ them, 
that you may see how repulsive is that idea of God, 
which, though we have never dared to formulate it in 
words, is the truthful utterance of our conduct. We 
have an abhorrence of the atheism of him who sees 
no God in the universe, and is forever glorifying law. 
We have a horror too of the pantheism of him with 
whom God is nothing better than a fine name for the 
universe itself. But alas ! we are little better our- 
selves, for though we admit the existence of God, we 
do not acknowledge practically, at least, his nearness 
to us individually, and his care over our personal con- 



174 



THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 



cerns. When we pray to him, it is as to one "far, far 
away; " and only in the great and apparently important 
crises in our lives do we think it needful to consult 
him. So he leaves us to ourselves, and we are care- 
worn, anxious, and perplexed. Brethren, I am thor- 
oughly convinced that unbelief is at the root of our 
worry, and that if we had only the same faith as this 
Oriental servant, and the same consciousness of the 
nearness of God to us, and his interest in us, as he had, 
we should be very seldom in difficulty ; and when we 
were, we should be willing to wait peacefully and trust- 
fully for his guidance. 

And why should we not have these things? Do you 
say to me that this man in these old days of igno- 
rance had no such sense of the order of Nature as 
that which our modern philosophers have given to us, 
and that therefore it was easier for him to realize 
that God was with him than it is for us now? But 
how hollow such an objection is ! The regular order 
of Nature is maintained by the constant presence 
and agency of God, for what are called laws are just 
the methods of his operation according as men have 
observed and classified them. How then can it be 
easier to recognize his existence and nearness without 
a knowledge of the constancy and regularity of these 
operations than it is with it ? You have but to put that 
question to see the absurdity of the supposition. So 
far from leading us to think of God as at a distance, it 
seems to me that the discoveries of modern times have 
brought him nearer to us, if I may so express it, than 
ever, for if the force that works according to law be 
the power of God, then every appeal we make to that 
force, whether through steam or electricity or what- 
ever else, is an appeal to God, and so we come to* feel 



THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 175 



that he is encircling us with his omnipresence, and 
serving us daily by his omnipotence. Science rightly 
understood thus helps my faith, and reveals to me a 
God at hand. 

Do you say again that this servant had known 
much of God's dealings with Abraham, and there- 
fore was the better able to believe that he would help 
him when he was in Abraham's service? Then I ask 
in reply, What were the revelations that he received 
through Abraham compared with those which we have 
received through Christ? The Gospel, no doubt, was 
preached to the Father of the Faithful, and we have the 
highest authority for the assertion that he saw Christ's 
day and was glad ; but his light was only a glimmer- 
ing in comparison with the fuller radiance of ours, and 
now we can say, " He that spared not his own Son, but 
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him 
also freely give us all things ? " That is the inference 
from the atonement as bearing on our daily life; and 
when we enter into that, when we believe that, we are 
in the way of being led through every maze of per- 
plexity. By his rod Moses parted the sea, and con- 
quered Amalek, and smote the rock ; and in the cross 
of Christ, when used as Paul has used it in the words 
I have quoted, we too have a wonder-working staff 
which will clear a way for us in every difficulty. 

Lastly, here, this servant was in the way of prayer. 
That follows from what I have just said of his faith ; 
but it is sufficiently important to require separate 
remark. For there is a plain, direct, earnest purpose 
in his supplication which strikes every reader most 
forcibly. To some, indeed, it might almost seem as if 
there were presumption in his petition : for he specifies 
the way in which he wishes his prayer to be answered, 



176 THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 

saying, " Let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom 
I shall say, 4 Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that 1 
may drink,' and she shall say, 'Drink, and I shall give 
thy camels drink also, ' let the same be she that thou 
hast appointed for thy servant Isaac ; and thereby shall I 
know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master. " 

Now, of course, we should never think of advis- 
ing any one to pray after that fashion, and you may 
ask how we account for such a prayer being pre- 
sented and answered then. The reply is to be found 
in the fact that a child speaks after the manner of 
a child, and must be answered in a style which he 
can understand. This servant, as compared with the 
weakest Christian, was but as a child is to a full-grown 
man. He prayed after the fashion of a child; he 
sought a visible token ; and condescending to his weak- 
ness, God gave him the token which he sought. His 
request, therefore, differs entirely from the famous 
prayer of the sceptic, in which he proposed to settle 
whether there was a God or not according as he received 
or did not receive a certain prescribed outward sign. 
That was a tempting of God ; but this was a trusting 
of him. It differs, too, from those superstitious prac- 
tices in accordance with which people have tried to 
forecast the future by hap-hazard openings of the 
Sacred Scriptures ; for these were a turning of the Bible 
into a lottery -box, while this was an application to 
God. The sign sought in this prayer, therefore, takes 
its place beside that which Jonathan gave to his armor- 
bearer, in the day when God delivered into his hands 
the garrison of the Philistines. The request for it 
was born of childlike confidence in God, and not of 
suspicion of God ; and therefore, being a real applica- 
tion to him, it was answered by him. 



THE WAY AND TEE LEADING, 



177 



But while we may well hesitate to present our peti- 
tions in precisely such a form as this, we may be 
encouraged from the answer which even this prayer 
received to goto God in every perplexity. This is the 
true way to attain the peace and guidance which we 
desire. For what says Paul ? " Be careful for noth- 
ing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, 
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known 
unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all 
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus. " This servant went to the very 
root of his anxiety, and spoke about nothing else. He 
did not profess an interest in other matters, which he 
did not at the moment feel, but he confined himself 
to that which was pressing upon him. He did not ask 
for blessings a long way ahead, but said," Give me good 
speed this day ; " and having unburdened his heart, he 
waited for God's answer. 

Now so it should be with us. When a man is in 
earnest he will take the shortest way; and instead 
of going about it and about it, he will come directly 
to that which is causing him distress, and seek re- 
lief. But often when we pray we use the vaguest gen- 
eralities, and make such indefinite requests that it would 
be difficult for us when we rise from our knees to tell 
precisely what we have asked. We go into our closets 
in the morning, and far from forecasting any of the 
occupations of the day, we content ourselves with using 
some stereotyped phrases, and go away without having 
expressed any particular desire, and having no definite 
expectation of special blessing in our hearts. Now in 
all this we are depriving ourselves of a great privilege; 
and what is more, we are not in the way of being led 
by the Lord. Why should we not think for a little of 

12 



178 THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 

what is before us ? It is, I am aware, impossible for 
us quite to anticipate all that in any day we shall have 
to encounter; but all of us know something of the 
engagements which we have to meet on the day on 
which we have entered. Why, then, should we not 
take time in our morning devotions to go over these in 
detail, and ask for the guidance which we specially 
need for each of them. This would make our prayers 
continually fresh and living things ; while at the same 
time it would impel us throughout the day to be con- 
tinually on the outlook for the direction which we have 
asked, and it would send us back to the mercy seat at 
night with a song of thanksgiving for the blessings 
which we have received. When we begin to talk with 
God about our daily life we shall begin also to keep 
that life for him ; and we, may be sure that it is only 
when we are waiting on him in prayer that he will lead 
us in the right path. 

But now I must say a word or two in conclusion 
about the leading of God when we are in the way. 
And here, after the thoughts which I have already 
expressed, it is only necessary that I should give 
prominence to the fact that this leading is to be looked 
for by us in and through God's ordinary providence. 
We are so familiar with the old history which this Book 
relates, of the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by 
night, by which the Israelites were conducted through 
the wilderness for forty years, that when we think of 
being guided by God we are apt to imagine that he is 
to make his presence known to us through some visible 
miracle or by some audible voice. We forget that the 
miracle is and must be unusual, and that if, in our 
daily lives, such manifestations were to be common, 



THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 



179 



the very purpose for which miracles were performed 
at all would be defeated. But though we thus shut out 
miracle, we do not shut out God, and such a history 
as this, in which there is nothing miraculous, helps us 
to understand how, even in and through the commonest 
incidents of life, God leads those who are in the way. 
For this is not a solitary instance. We see the same 
thing in the story of the birth of Moses, in the histories 
of Ruth, of Nehemiah, and of Esther; in none of which 
is there the record of anything supernatural, while it 
is impossible for any one to read them without feeling 
that God was in them all from first to last 

Now, God is to-day as really in the casual meetings 
which we have with men upon our doorsteps, in the 
streets, in our stores, on the railroad cars, or on board 
ship, as he was here in this interview between Eliezer 
and Rebekah at the well. He who met the woman of 
Samaria when she went out to do such a common thing 
as to draw water at the well, is all the time meeting 
us; and if we ask him to guide us, he will through 
casual and ordinary occurrences lead us to the right 
destination. This, to me, is one of the most striking 
and one of the most comforting lessons which can be 
learned from the record which has been before us this 
morning. We need no Urim and Thummim ; we may 
not seek for dreams and visions and voices ; we must 
not long for signs and wonders; for now, though all 
these are withdrawn, we have still that overruling and 
omnipresent providence, of Avhich one has truthfully 
and suggestively said, " This is, in fact, the great 
miracle of providence, that no miracles are needed to 
accomplish its purposes." Through natural law and 
commonplace incidents God is leading his people to-day 
as really as he led the Israelites through the desert of 



\ 



180 THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 

Sinai by the pillar of cloud. We may not have been 
conscious of it at the moment, and each step we took 
we may have thought that we could not take another; 
but still as we moved forward the path opened, and we 
could always advance a little farther, until now when 
we look back we can discover that God has been lead- 
ing us all the time, and we are precisely where he 
would have us to be. Ay, and when we look back we 
can see by what casual interviews with other people 
— as little remarkable as this meeting at the well of 
Nahor was — God has changed the whole color and 
complexion of our lives. If each of us here to-day 
were only required to tell fully out how he came first 
to be here in this great centre of commerce and influ- 
ence, I am sure we should find that it was by some 
common and simple occurrence — no more noteworthy 
at the time than is the meeting of two strangers at an 
Eastern well — that we were first led to think of and 
ultimately to determine on coming hither. But if all 
that is true of the past, it is just as true of the present. 
God is in the incidents of to-day, to guide us, just as 
truly as he was in these ; and perhaps the mere bringing 
up of this history at this time may be like the very 
hand of the great Father held down for some one here 
to grasp. Do not despair. Do not imagine that God 
has forgotten you. If you are in the way of duty, of 
faith, and of prayer, be sure that somehow through the 
common incidents of a common day he will guide your 
feet into the right path. 

Ah, what new significance this gives to every occur- 
rence in our histories ! How near this brings God to us ! 
When we talk of his omnipresence, we have but a vague 
idea of his proximity to us; but when we think of him 
as working in and through the minutest events of our 



THE WAY AND THE LEADING. 181 



daily lives for our direction, that is another matter, and 
we begin to realize the meaning of the Master's words, 
" Lo, I am with you alway ! " How sacred, too, in this 
aspect of them, do the events of our lives become ! They 
are new revelations of God to us, and we too, like these 
old patriarchs, have our Hebrons and Bethels and Pen- 
iels and Moriahs. Let us go this morning in this faith, 
and we shall feel our hearts lightened, and our pace 
quickened, as we sing, " A good man's steps are ordered 
of the Lord." And if haply there should be one here in 
deep perplexity, let me exhort him to follow to the last 
limit that which he now knows to be right, and then 
to entreat the Lord with earnestness and wait patiently 
the issue. " Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and 
he shall strengthen thine heart. " 

" Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom, — 

Lead thou me on. 
The night is dark, and I am far from home, — 

Lead thou me on. 
Keep thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene; one step enough for me. 

" So long thy power has blest me, sure it still 

Will lead me on, 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 

The night is gone, 
And with the morn those angel faces smile 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile." 



XIV. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR 
PRAYERS. 

For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, 
but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us ivith 
groanings which cannot be uttered. — Romans viii. 26. 

It is not without serious misgivings that I venture 
to speak to you from these words. They take us 
into " the deep things of God," and it is but a little 
way down into these that our tiny plummets can de- 
scend. Nevertheless, during these recent days I have 
had some profitable thoughts on the Holy Spirit as a 
factor in our prayers, and I desire to make you sharers 
with me in them ; but like the groanings to which the 
text refers, these thoughts themselves are largely unut- 
terable, and I shall be content if I can only set you to 
meditation on the subject for yourselves, that in the 
silence of your own closets you may go more fully into 
it than any words of mine can take you. 

The passage to which the text belongs is that in which 
Paul unfolds to his readers the various offices of the Holy 
Spirit toward believers. He tells them that he descends 
into their souls as the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, unit- 
ing them to him and making them partakers of his life ; 
that in the power of this new life they are freed from the 
law of sin and death, and enabled to walk not after the 
flesh, but after the Spirit ; that he leads them as their 



HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 183 

guide ; that he teaches them to cry to God, " Abba, 
Father," and so witnesses with their own spirits that 
they are the children of God ; and that his work in 
them is the first fruits of their full and final redemption, 
a foretaste of its quality and a pledge of its certainty. 
Then he adds, " Likewise also " (or after the same 
manner also) " the Spirit helpeth our infirmity." This 
is a general statement referring to the weakness that is 
characteristic of our spiritual life as a whole ; and the 
meaning is, that in our lack of strength, no matter in 
what department that may be experienced by us, the 
Holy Spirit is our Helper. 

Then as a particular illustration of the kind of 
help he gives, Paul specifies the nature of the assis- 
tance which he renders to us in prayer. For we do 
need help in that exercise, inasmuch as " we know 
not what we should pray for as we ought;" and he 
gives us help by " making intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered." This interces- 
sion must be carefully distinguished in our thoughts 
from that of Christ our great heavenly High Priest. 
The intercession of Christ is carried on in heaven ac- 
cording to these words in a subsequent portion of this 
chapter : " It is Christ that died ; yea, rather that is risen 
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us." But the intercession of 
the Spirit is on earth, as the result and accompaniment of 
his dwelling within us, and is carried on in connection 
with our own supplications. If it be asked how the 
Spirit in us makes intercession for us, the answer of 
the text is, " with groanings that cannot be uttered ; " 
and if again an explanation of that answer be requested, 
we may give the response in the words of the venerable 
Charles Hodge : " He excites in us those desires which, 



184 HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 

though never uttered except in sighs, or which, though 
too big for utterance, are known and heard of God." Or 
we may give the explanation more fully in the language of 
Alford : " The Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us, knowing 
our wants better than we, himself pleads in our prayers, 
raising us to higher and holier desires than we can ex- 
press in words, which can only find utterance in sighings 
and aspirations." And at the close of his exposition of 
the section he adds : " As these pleadings of the Spirit 
are heard and answered, even when inarticulate, we may 
extend the same comforting assurance to the imperfect 
and mistaken verbal utterances in our prayers, which are 
not themselves answered to our hurt, but the answer is 
given to the voice of the Spirit which speaks through 
them, which we would express but cannot." 

So much by way of explanation of the text where it 
stands. Now let us take it up with special reference 
to ourselves, and as involving in it the " comforting 
assurance " which, in the sentence just quoted from him, 
Alford says may be warrantably included in it. 

First of all let us note the description here given 
of our infirmity in prayer : " We know not what we 
should pray for as we ought." This clause comprehends, 
as you clearly see, both the matter and the manner of our 
prayers ; both what we should ask, and how we should 
ask it. And which of us is not conscious that the 
statement of the Apostle here is true ? When James 
and John came to the Master during his earthly ministry, 
and desired that they should sit the one on his right 
hand, and the other on his left, in his kingdom, he 
said to them, " Ye know not what ye ask." And when 
we come to read the conversation which he had with 
them at the time, we discover that they had no right 



HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 185 

ideas either of the nature of his kingdom, or of the 
principle on which the honors of that kingdom were 
to be bestowed, or of what would be involved in the 
granting of their request in the kingdom such as it was 
to be. But, really, when we examine the matter care- 
fully, it is just as true of each of us, in the simplest 
petition that we present, that " we know not what we 
ask." We may have a definite object in view, and we 
may think it good and most desirable; but we cannot trace 
it through all its bearings, we cannot see how the attain- 
ment of it would affect us if it were to be bestowed upon 
us, nor can we tell what may be required of us in the 
way of discipline and trial before it can be granted. 
We cannot tell whether the bestowment of it would be 
a blessing or the reverse ; neither can we see by what 
means God may be pleased to answer our cry. In our 
shortsightedness, we may ask for things that would 
be anything but for our good ; and so very often we 
find " profit by losing of our prayers." The imperfect 
sanctification of our hearts may let us fix our desires on 
improper objects ; and, besides, the very limitation of our 
faculties as finite beings makes it impossible for us to 
tell whether what we desire would be a blessing or a 
curse to us. 

Then we know not how to pray as we ought. True, 
the Lord Jesus has given us a model here, and has said, 
" After this manner pray ye." But you have only to 
take up that prayer which he so prefaced, and which 
is so frequently on our lips, and ponder it word by 
word and clause by clause, to see how difficult, how 
indeed impossible it is for us, without the aid of the 
Holy Spirit, to offer our supplications after its manner. 
Take these words in it, — " Thy will be done in earth as it 
is in heaven,"— and which of us can soar to the height 



186 HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 

which they attain, or encircle the wide domain which 
they comprehend ? Or if you think of the union of faith 
and humility, of freedom and reverence, of earnest- 
ness and submission, that are required if we would pray 
aright, you will see how impossible it is for us to be 
sure that our approaches to the Hearer of Prayer are 
altogether such as can be acceptable to him. Truly Paul 
is right when he says, " We know not what we should 
pray for as we ought." 

Now some may be ready to say in response to all 
this, that if these things be so, the natural inference is 
that we should not pray at all ; and if there were no 
helper provided for our infirmity, perhaps that logic 
might be allowed. But that is not the way in which 
Paul reasons. Rather he bids us pray on, in the sure 
confidence that the Holy Spirit in us will make all 
that is wrong in our petitions and in our manner of 
presenting them right in the sight of God, and that the 
result will be our reception of blessings manifold and 
gracious from his benignant hand. 

This leads me to the consideration of the great 
truth that the Holy Spirit " helpeth " our prayers ; and 
that requires us to answer the question how and in 
what respects he maketh intercession for us according 
to the will of God. 

Now here in the first place it is pertinent to say, espe- 
cially with Alford's inference from our text in mind, 
that the Holy Spirit rectifies our prayers. We ask 
what we desire ; but through his intercession, that is 
transmuted into what we need, and we get that from 
God. He knows " the things of our spirits," because he 
dwells within us ; and knowing these he goes beneath 
our wishes to our necessities, and presents them to God. 



HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 187 



We cannot tell how this is done, but we have the assur- 
ance that it is done ; for we always get what we need, 
and not always what we ask. Let me take an illustra- 
tion. When Peter saw the glory of Godhead stream- 
ing through the miracle of the great draught of fishes, 
he fell at Jesus' knees and said, " Depart from me, for 
I am a sinful man, Lord." Now that cry had in it 
all the impulsiveness, rashness, and inconsiderateness 
that were so characteristic of Peter. It might have 
been affirmed of him then, as it was afterwards on the 
Mount of Transfiguration, that he knew not what he said. 
It was his way of expressing the self-abasement which 
Job felt when he said : " I have heard of thee by the 
hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, Where- 
fore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Or 
that which Isaiah uttered when he exclaimed, " Woe is 
me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean 
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean 
lips ; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of 
hosts." What he needed, therefore, was not that Jesus 
should depart from him, but rather that he should have 
fully revealed to him the gentleness and forgivingness 
of Jesus ; and so the Lord, meeting his necessity rather 
than granting his request, said, " Fear not : from hence- 
forth thou shalt catch men." Now what the Lord did 
in that case with Peter's request, before he gave any 
response to it, that the Holy Ghost does with our unin- 
telligent and impulsive prayers, before they ascend into 
the ears of him whose name and whose memorial have 
been in all ages, " the Hearer of Prayer." 

But if that be really the case, so far from being 
discouraged from praying by the fact that we know not 
what we should pray for as we ought, we are the rather 
encouraged to offer up petitions for all that we desire ; 



188 HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 

because we know that our errors of ignorance, or im- 
pulsiveness, or excitement, will be rectified by Him who 
dwelleth in us and maketh there intercession for us, 
according to the will of God. Speak, therefore, with 
the utmost freedom when you are upon your knees. 
Be genuine ; ask for things that are real to you ; ex- 
press the desires you feel, and leave it to the Holy 
Spirit in you to put all right before the Lord. Say 
what you feel, and be sure that he will rectify all that 
is amiss. 

Then, again, if we have rightly represented the case, 
you will see how it comes that our prayers are not 
always answered in the way in which we desired and 
asked that they should be. No real prayer, I believe, 
is ever unanswered. But yet we ask for many things 
which we do not get, the reason being that in response 
to the intercession of the Holy Spirit, God has given us 
something better, — even that which we really needed ; 
and the reception of that will remove the desire which 
we foolishly or ignorantly cherished for something else. 
It would have been a terrible thing for Peter if the 
Saviour had taken him at his word, and departed from 
him, as he did from the Gadarenes ; but instead he 
gave him such a revelation of himself as made him con- 
tent — oh, how much more than content, delighted — 
to be continually by his side. So while we do not 
always get what we ask, we do receive, in response to 
the rectifying intercession of the Spirit in us, that which 
makes us no longer desire what we formerly requested. 
I need not stay to show the bearing of all this on much 
that is said in these days concerning prayer ; but if you 
will intelligently receive this presentation of the case, 
you will be saved from the error of those who are far 
on the way toward making prayer a fetich, and who 



HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 189 



seem to think that God has bound himself by a pledge 
to give us always precisely that for which we ask. 

But passing to another thought, I remark that the 
Holy Spirit helps our prayers by interpreting them. 
We do not see or know all that is implied in the words 
we are using, even when we are praying for things 
agreeable to God's will ; this is especially the case when, 
as so frequently, we use the words of Holy Scripture, and 
turn God's promises into petitions. I cannot better ex- 
press this truth than in the following sentences which 1 
take from a letter in the memoir of an old friend that 
has just recently been published : — 

" When we pray, 'Thy kingdom come,' who knows what 
all is meant by that petition as Christ did when he put it into 
the prayer for all ages? Or what two that join in praying 
agree, — agree they must to some extent, according to the 
rubric, i If two of you shall agree,' etc., — but what two 
agree, not only in meaning all that Christ meant, and that 
the inspired words themselves mean, but also agree in mean- 
ing exactly the same thing? — some inclining more to mille- 
narian views, and some more to the common opinion. And 
then the amount of misconception, or at least of imperfect 
intellectual conception, in the views of all of us, it would be 
impossible to calculate or analyze. It is quite impossible 
that the prayer should be answered according to our variety 
of views, with all their falsehood and imperfection. But then 
if the prayer be sincere, and the feeling true, and the wor- 
shipper praying in the Spirit and through Christ, and that 
not in the words that man's wisdom teacheth, then these 
words have not only come to us inspired, but they return 
from us inspired as well, — 'the Holy Ghost interpreting 
them into their full significance in the presence of the 
throne ; ' . . .so that our prayer — ' Thy kingdom come, thy 
will be done in earth,' or whatever else it be — is heard not 



190 HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 

according to the meaning we put, but according to the mean- 
ing he puts upon it, and this in virtue of his intercession, 
one function of which is, I should say, interpretation." 1 

These are weighty words, and I should only mar their 
effect by attempting to say anything of my own on the 
subject to which they refer. May I beg you to ponder 
well the thoughts which they express ? 

But now, finally, the Spirit helps us in prayer by 
giving significance to that which we find to be unutter- 
able. The deepest experiences of the soul cannot be 
formulated in human speech. That which we can put 
most fluently into words is in the main superficial. The 
shallow water makes the loudest noise as it flows over 
the stony bed of the river ; but the deep pool is silent. 
When the heart is most thoroughly stirred, its emotions 
cannot be spoken " trippingly on the tongue." The 
highest joys are beyond our expression, and the sorest 
griefs are those which strike us dumb. We have not 
advanced far in spiritual experience if we have not dis- 
covered that the deepest worship " is that of silence, 
which of all acts of worship and means of grace brings 
us nearest to God, nearest to the Unseen and Eternal 
Real." Some of us have felt that at the communion 
table, when in " expressive silence " we sat " musing the 
praise " we could not speak. Some of us, too, have felt 
it in the depths of a severe trial. You remember those 
lines of Whittier in his letter of condolence to Joseph 
Sturge on the death of his sister : — 

" With silence only as their benediction, 
God's angels come, 
Where, in the shadow of a great affliction, 
The soul sits dumb; " 

1 Memoirs of Wm. B. Robertson, D. D., of Irvine, by James Brown, 
D.D., pp. 378, 379. 



HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 191 



and you have not had much suffering of any kind in 
the world if you have not at some time or other been 
dumb under that shadow. You cannot say anything 
then to your nearest and dearest earthly companion. 
You cannot say anything to God. You think you can- 
not pray. Ah, but you mistake ! That silence is the 
unutterable sighing to which my text refers ; and it is 
made by the Holy Spirit articulate petition in the ear 
of God. For here comes in the truth contained in these 
lines of the Danish hymn : — 

" What in the heart lies deepest ever, 

Unbreathed by mortal lip abroad, 
And heard by ear of mortal never, 

Takes voice before the throne of God. 
The silence of our spirits tells 
Its tale aloud where Jesus dwells." 

And the result is the coming of blessings upon us 
which throw a flood of light upon the words of Paul, 
when, extolling the riches of God's grace, he says that 
" he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that 
we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in 
us." Mark that last clause, — " according to the power 
that worketh in us ; " for it clearly refers to this same 
intercession of the Holy Spirit which he specifies in my 
text. Be not unjust to yourselves, then, when either in 
your joys or your sorrows you get to a place where you 
cannot speak, even to God, either in praise or prayer. 
If you are a real child of his, that silence is the truest 
devotion, and the Holy Spirit will make it so expressive 
unto God that he will shower his richest blessings on 
your head. 

But I can go no further. What I have said will, I am 
sure, be helpful to those who receive it ; and if any do 
not now appreciate it, they may, perhaps, recall it with 



192 HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 

thankfulness when the dumbness either of elevation or 
depression comes upon them. ■ I conclude with the fol- 
lowing hymn from the heart and pen of him from whose 
letter I have already quoted : — 

When joys are joys that words transcend ; 

When griefs have shut the heart ; 
When we, who at the altar bend, 

Can only pray in part ; 
When angels, both of joy and grief, 

Strike priests at prayer-time dumb, — 
'T is then, with thy divine relief, 

Thou Comforter dost come. 

When we with words of Scripture pray, 

And do not, cannot know 
The meaning full of what we say 

In praying Scripture so, — 
By thee, in meaning full, before 

The throne, the prayer is brought, 
Whence we receive exceeding more 

Than we have asked or thought. 

When joys are joys unspeakable, 

That rise all thoughts above, 
And earnest souls with rapture fill 

In the silent heavens of love, — 
As babe soft mother's arms upraise, 

Thou Dove on thy white wings 
Dost bear us up, on God to gaze! — 

Far down the angel sings. 

And when our griefs deep buried lie 

Beneath all utterance dumb, 
Into that silent agony 

Thou with thy help dost come. 
Then, with the unutterable groans, 

Is intercession given, 
That makes, above all trumpet tones, 

Our silence heard in heaven. 



HOLY SPIRIT AS A FACTOR IN OUR PRAYERS. 193 



Oh, Holy Ghost, the Comforter, 

All speed to help us make. 
Our hearts with griefs they cannot bear, 

With very joys they break ; 
Blind yearnings after God, dumb cries 

That ne'er their aim could reach, 
Did'st thou not give their blindness eyes, 

And make their silence speech. 



13 



XV. 

VISIONS. 



And a vision appeared to Pant in the night. There stood 
a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying. Come over into 
Macedonia and help us. — Acts xvi. 9. 

Many years ago I preached from this text, in its 
relation to the Missionary Enterprise. That is, indeed, 
the natural, obvious, and direct bearing of the whole 
narrative on the practical Christian life of to-day. 
This man of Macedonia speaks still for the heathen 
world, and Paul, to whom his appeal was made, is the 
representative of the Church of Christ. Evermore, if 
we have ears to hear, we may hear coming from all 
quarters of the globe the cry of benighted and miser- 
able humanity for help. Would that there were more 
Pauls among us to respond as he did ! And there would 
be, if there were more among us "constrained," as he 
was, by the love of Christ, to live not unto ourselves, 
but unto him who died for us and rose again. In these 
two things the cry of the heathen, "Come, help," and 
the command of the Master, " Go, preach, " we have 
the great motive principles for the prosecution of the 
work of missions both at home and in foreign lands ; 
and we are no true successors of the Great Apostle if 
we do not give our prayers, our gifts, our energies, our 
lives, to that transcendently important cause. 

I could not, indeed I have felt as if I dared not, take 
this text, without putting that statement in the very 



VISIONS. 



195 



forefront of my discourse; but it is not my present 
purpose to preach a missionary sermon. I desire rather 
to look at this vision from quite another point of view, 
— lower, indeed, and less commanding in its range, but 
yet giving us a glimpse, at least, of matters which 
are weighty enough to deserve our serious attention. 
It is not expressly said that this vision given to Paul 
was supernatural; but that it was so, is certainly the 
most natural inference from the words of the historian 
in the tenth verse, " Immediately we endeavoured to go 
into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had 
called us to preach the Gospel unto them. " We cannot, 
therefore, place quite on a level with that anything 
of a similar nature that may come to ourselves. But 
yet within certain limits we may speak of those beck- 
onings toward future labors in life, or achievements 
in character, which may be given to us in God's ordi- 
nary Providence, which become our ideals for the time, 
and after which we strive with all the earnestness 
and enthusiasm of our souls as visions not unlike 
that which was here given to Paul. It may, there- 
fore, be profitable to see what we may learn concern- 
ing them from this incident in the life of the Apostle 
of the Gentiles. 

Most of us in this lower sense have had at some 
time or other our visions. Such have been the dreams 
of our youth, which, like those of Joseph, may have 
exposed us at the time to the ridicule of those around 
us, but which, at a later date, kept us from despond- 
ency, nerved us for effort, and perhaps also prevented 
us from yielding to the lowest kinds of temptations, — 
which, at any rate, have allured us on until, in some 
degree at least, they have been fulfilled. Take two 
or three illustrations. 



196 VISIONS. 

There is a boy just seven years old, lying under 
the bright summer's sun on the bank of a rivulet in 
Worcestershire, England, and looking wistfully out 
upon the lands of his ancestors, which had passed into 
the hands of strangers. As he looks, his vision comes 
to him. Poor, orphaned, almost friendless as he is, 
he sees himself the Lord of the Manor, dwelling in 
the home of his fathers, and possessing their estates. 
Threescore and ten years after, on that very spot, he 
told how, as he was lying there that day, there rose in 
his mind a scheme Which, through all the turns of his 
eventful career, was never abandoned. " He would re- 
cover the estate which had belonged to his fathers." 
This purpose, formed in infancy and poverty, grew 
stronger as his intellect expanded and as his fortune 
rose. He pursued his plan with that calm but indomi- 
table force of will which was the most striking pecu- 
liarity of his character. When under a tropical sun 
he ruled fifty millions of Asiatics, his hopes amidst 
all the cares of war, finance, and legislation still 
pointed to his ancestral hall. And when his long 
public life, so singularly checkered with good and evil, 
with glory and obloquy, had at length closed forever, it 
was to " that home " that he retired to die. 1 His name 
was Warren Hastings. 

Look again. This time it is a Highland glen, 
hemmed in by steep and lofty hills, one of Nature's 
loneliest solitudes, where no sounds are heard but the 
bleating of the sheep on the mountain sides, and the 
brawling of the brook over its rocky bed in the hollow. 
On a huge bowlder by the margin of the stream there 
sits a man, with heavy countenance, absorbed in 
thought,. — so absorbed that he has not observed the 

1 Macaulay's Essay on Warren Hastings. 



VISIONS. 



197 



approach of a company of gentlemen, his fellow guests 
at the ducal castle in the neighborhood. They rally 
him on his love for being alone, and ask him what he 
is thinking of so deeply. He gravely answers, for his 
vision had come to him also, that he was planning a 
system of drainage for the city of Paris, to be carried 
out when he should be emperor of the French, and their 
only response is a shout of mocking laughter. But in 
later years they spoke of it with quite another feeling, 
for his name was Louis Napoleon. 

Look once more, — this time into a little store in the 
Strand, London. The proprietor is in the act of going- 
out; but he turns upon the threshold and addresses a 
little boy who is within, "Andrew, won't you come 
with me ? " " Where are you going, Father ? " "I 
am going to St. Paul's to see a new statue, which has 
been erected in the cathedral." "I'll go with you. " 
So they took their way along the crowded street, and 
ere long were under the vast dome with which the 
genius of Wren is forever associated. By and by they 
stood before the new statue. It was that to the memory 
of the great philanthropist, John Howard. The boy 
asked who he was, and what he had done; and his 
father told him briefly of Howard's work in the prisons, 
not only of Great Britain, but of Europe generally, and 
as he listened his vision came to him. He, too, would 
be a philanthropist. He became a minister of the 
Gospel, and did good service both in the pulpit and in 
more general work among the English non-conformists ; 
but all through life his vision never left him, and to- 
day, in the village of Reedham and elsewhere, there are 
orphan asylums, an asylum for idiots, a hospital for 
incurables, and other kindred institutions, which owe 
their origin to the patient and persistent energy of that 



198 VISIONS. 

one benevolent man, in obedience to the vision of his 
youth. His name was Andrew Reed. 

I could multiply similar illustrations indefinitely; 
but these must suffice, throwing you in, as they must 
needs do, upon your own cherished visions, and giving 
their confirmation also to my statement. Young man, 
you see your vision now, — wealth, honor, usefulness, 
power, pre-eminence, holiness, — I know not what, but 
it is there; and you have yours, young woman, too, 
whether of frivolous social gayety and a leading place 
in the pleasures of the city, or of practical Christian 
beneficence and the development of agencies for the 
advancement of the highest interests of your less 
fortunate sisters. I know not, but you have them, and 
you see them once again, as I now refer thus to them. 
Now concerning these visions, we may learn two things 
from the case of Paul in my text. 

The first is that they commonly take their color from 
the character, history, and habits of the individual 
before they come to him. Recollect that this vision 
given to Paul was miraculous ; and yet in this case, as 
in so many others, the supernatural was grafted on 
the natural. This Macedonian was inviting Paul to 
preach to Gentiles. But that was the very thing 
which the Apostle most desired to do. He had been 
himself brought up in a Gentile city; he knew the 
characteristics of the Greeks. He had already had 
great success in Antioch, and in his missionary jour- 
neys through Cyprus, and up in Central Asia Minor to 
Tconium, Lystra, and Derbe; and so this vision was in 
the line of the Apostle's own aspirations. I can 
hardly think of such an appeal being made, in such a 
way, to the Apostle James. It is possible, of course, 



VISIONS. 



199 



but in my view not very probable. He was a Jew of 
the Jews. He would not oppose Paul's work among 
the Gentiles, indeed, and used his influence at the 
council of Jerusalem to get a working agreement carried 
out between the two parties in the church. But he 
was not specially attracted to the Gentiles, and there 
was little in him to which the appeal of a Macedonian 
could address itself. Therefore it did not come to 
him; but it was sent to Paul, whose training and 
travels had prepared him to receive and act upon it. 
Now if that be true in regard to a vision that was 
miraculously given, then it is a fortiori true in regard 
to those which come to us in God's ordinary Provi- 
dence. It is to the heart already ambitious that the 
visions of conquest and imperial honor come. Out of 
the mercenary spirit grows the dream of wealth, and 
to a soul that has heard with sympathy " the still sad 
music of humanity," comes most powerfully home the 
cry of the wretched for relief. Just as the landscape 
shapes itself differently according to the disposition of 
the spectator, seeming to one enfolded in melancholy 
and to another bright and jubilant with gladness, so 
the vision is as is the soul that sees it. That which 
would have attraction for one, has none for another; 
and those only fix themselves upon a man, and will 
not let him go until he has fulfilled them, which are 
particularly in harmony with his disposition and 
history. What a man is, therefore, has a great deal to 
do with determining the sort of visions which will be 
forceful, or if you will forgive the word, fateful in 
his life. 

For now I go on to remark, as the second thing 
suggested by this history, that visions of the kind of 



200 visions. 

which I have been speaking very largely dominate the 
lives of those who have received them. Paul imme- 
diately set out for Europe after he had seen this Mace- 
donian and heard his cry. His reception at Philippi, 
indeed, might tempt him to think that he had made a 
mistake, and his experiences at Thessalonica, Berea, 
and Athens might have daunted a less courageous 
man ; but this vision held him up, and he went on and 
on, until in Corinth a great door and effectual was 
opened unto him. Now, as we must never forget, his 
vision was from God, and he had a right to believe that 
in following its direction he was doing that which his 
Lord would have him do. But even in those cases 
with which we are mainly dealing now, a similar effect 
is produced. A man is ruled by his ideals. They may 
be rooted in his disposition, character, habits, history; 
but after they have become fixed they are supreme in 
him and over him. Let his vision be accepted by him 
as such, and then it holds him to itself. Thenceforth 
the fulfilment of it becomes the one great object of 
his life, concerning which he says, "This one thing 
I do." 

Now if these things be so, if our ideals dominate our 
lives, and if our ideals are themselves rooted in our 
character, habits, and history, what a powerful motive 
have we in these considerations for giving good heed to 
the character which we acquire, the habits which we 
form, and the history which we make. We become 
what we believe. We are what we choose to make our- 
selves, and we must make ourselves either after the 
ideal of Christ, or after that of the world in which we 
find our most agreeable environment. Which are you 
doing ? Which have you done ? The question is of 
immense importance, involving in it not only your 



VISIONS. 



201 



earthly career, but also your eternal destiny. If it be 
that the vision which has heretofore allured you be 
one of mere worldly ambition, involving in it only 
temporal aggrandizement or earthly glory, let me en- 
treat you to revise the whole plau of your life, and to 
exchange an earthly ideal for a heavenly; and as the 
ideal grows out of, or is grafted upon the character, 
let me beseech you further to seek for that regeneration, 
that new birth, which shall make you a new man, and 
give you for your vision the attainment of " the mark 
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus. " 

Here then is the order in which I would have you 
range your objects of desire: First, regeneration, that 
you may have in you that new nature which will be 
attracted by all that is pure and noble and of good 
report, as these are set before you in Christ ; next, the 
vision of the attainment by you of all these things in 
Christ as the grand ideal of your career ; and next, the 
unification, the focusing of yourself on the continuous 
effort to make that ideal real in your own character and 
conduct. That will make your life sublime, indeed, 
for by the power of the Holy Ghost it will make it 
holy, and make you meet to be a partaker of the inheri- 
tance of the saints in light. 

Not all the visions which have fascinated men have 
been fulfilled in them. Not every Hastings who has 
dreamed in youth of regaining the acres of his ancestors 
has succeeded in acquiring them; and frequently the 
visions that have seemed so alluring have been but like 
the mirage of the desert, which has dissolved into 
nothingness just as the traveller thought he was coming 
up to its refreshing waters. But this vision which 
Christ gives to every one to whom his Gospel is faith- 



202 visions. 

fully proclaimed is no mirage. It is possible to gain 
that which it holds before us ; and when we do gain it, 
we shall not be disappointed with it, but it shall be 
better to us even than we anticipated. We may have to 
go through tribulation to reach it, for we can stand 
upon no summit unless we have climbed up to it- 
There are Anakim to be conquered before the possession 
of every promised land. So the path to the attainment 
by us of the Christ-ideal may lead through affliction 
and trial and conflict and sorrow; but if we hold on 
and hold out we shall attain it, and no man shall take 
it from us. Oh! let this vision take hold upon you 
now, and begin forthwith to act upon it. I send you on 
no mere perhaps, for in this field ye shall reap if you 
faint not. I allure you to no disappointment ; I make 
no promises which my Master will not keep ; I raise no 
hopes which he will not satisfy. Behold him yonder on 
his throne in the attitude of alluring love. Listen to 
his words, as in your vision he speaks to you and says, 
" Follow me. " " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee a crown of life. " " To him that overcometh 
will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also 
overcame and am set down with my father on his 
throne. " 

Suffer me now in conclusion to gather up and pre- 
serve for you, as pointedly as I may, a few important 
principles worthy of being constantly remembered by 
you on this whole matter of ideals. 

First, it is bad to have no ideal in life, for then your 
life will be little better than mere existence. It needs 
an ideal to give concentration and purpose and plan to 
our existence before it can be life indeed. What the 
lens does with the sunlight, that a vision of the sort 



VISIONS. 



203 



I have been speaking of does with life. It gathers 
it up into one burning spot, which kindles every 
inflammable thing which it touches into flame. The 
plan of the architect, followed by the builder, turns 
heaps of loose stones into one great structure ; and even 
so the vision of each soul makes the life of that soul a 
unit, designed for one purpose, and devoted to one end. 
He who has no ideal has no earnestness, and will never 
produce anything great. As it was in the case of 
Reuben, his character is the prophecy of his career, 
and it might be said to him also, " Unstable as water, 
thou shalt not excel." So it is bad to have no ideal. 

But it is worse to have a bad ideal. You remem- 
ber the words of our Lord, " If the light that is in thee 
be darkness, how great is that darkness ? " The most 
diabolical thing that Milton puts into the mouth of 
Satan is this: "Evil, be thou my good." But there 
are men who seem to have adopted the same principle. 
He who has no ideal is not a good man, but his wicked- 
ness is of a negative sort. He does not commit it of set 
and deliberate purpose, but because he has not gathered 
himself up to consider what he ought to have done. 
He is like an abandoned ship without any one to steer 
her, and so he is driven hither and thither by the winds 
of passion or the waves of impulse. But the man with 
a bad ideal is a positively bad man, going deliberately 
after that which he has made the object of his life, and 
caring for nothing else if only he can attain it. By 
the concentration of soul, the energy of earnestness, 
and the directness of aim which the having of an ideal 
produces in any man, he who has a bad one is just so 
much worse than he who has none at all. Therefore 
let us look well to the sort of ideal we select. 

But still further, thirdly, it is a sad thing when 



204 



VISIONS. 



a man has overtaken his ideal. You remember the 
sigh of the artist when, as he looked on his greatest 
work, he said, " Alas ! I can do no better ! I have 
overtaken my ideal." When that is true of any one, 
there is an immediate relaxation of effort, and an 
entire cessation of watchfulness. The object is gained, 
and so he sits down and rests in self-congratulation 
and conceit. But there is no such thing as remaining 
at rest in this life. Character never continueth in one 
stay. If we cease to cultivate it, and to watch over 
it, then it begins to deteriorate, and we fall away back 
toward that from which we came. When I lived in 
Liverpool my house was not far from several large 
works in which marine engines were made, and from 
which sea-going steamers were supplied with engineers. 
I knew the managers well, and in conversation with 
them learned a great many matters of interest. I found 
among the rest that commonly there were from four 
to six engineers for every ship, and that they were 
advanced from the sixth on to the first, in the order of 
seniority or merit, and as vacancies occurred ; but the 
suggestive thing was this, — that so long as they were 
climbing up toward the top of the ladder, they could 
all be trusted to be sober, steady, earnest, and active 
in their work ; but when they became chiefs, then there 
was danger. They had attained their ideal. Now 
they might relax their efforts, and be less watchful of 
their habits, and those who yielded to that danger fell. 
Now is there nothing like that among ourselves; 
and have we not, some of us at least, fallen before the 
same seductive influence ? Let us see to it, therefore, 
that we adopt an ideal that we shall never lose by over- 
taking, and that is to be found alone in the character 
and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is abso- 



VISIONS. 



205 



lute perfection. Do as we may, we never can lose that 
by reaching it. The farther we advance toward it, the 
more it opens up for us to enter upon ; the higher we 
rise after it in holiness the higher his example seems 
to soar above us; the better we become, the more 
plainly do we see new excellencies in him to be 
attained. For holiness clears the spiritual perception, 
and they who have reached the greatest purity are 
always those who are longing and striving most for the 
attainment of yet closer conformity to the image of 
Christ. Oh ! that the vision of the Christ might so fill 
our souls to-day, that henceforth the one aim of each of 
our lives might be to attain to "the measure of the 
stature of the perfect man in him " ! 



XVI. 

THE PROVINCE OF FEELING IN RELIGIOUS 

EXPERIENCE. 

Oh, that I were as in months pasi y as in the days when 
God preserved me. — Job xxix. 2, 3. 

Alas ! poor Job ! He was, indeed, terribly afflicted. 
He had lost all his property, and been bereaved of all 
his children ; his wife had tempted him to curse God, 
and his friends, who had come to sympathize with him, 
had remained to pronounce condemnation on him. 
Naturally enough, therefore, he had for the time being 
come to think that God had forsaken him. But, 
natural though it was, this opinion was not true. So 
we judge of this outcry of misery from his heart. 
For God was as really with him then as ever he had 
been, and he himself was as good a man as ever he had 
been. Nay, more, he had as much of God's grace as 
ever he had been favored with, only that had gone 
meanwhile into another direction than the emotional. 
The stimulant which would exhilarate, perhaps intoxi- 
cate, a man in health, may only just suffice to float him 
through a dangerous and depressing illness ; and much 
in the same way the grace which in one set of circum- 
stances would lift one up to exuberant joy may in 
another be no more than enough, if indeed it be 
enough, to keep him from sinking into depression or 
despair. So Job was allowing his feelings to mis- 
lead him. He was judging of God's attitude toward 



FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 207 



him by his emotions, and as these had fallen below 
zero, he concluded that God had forsaken him. But he 
was not the last, by any means, who has fallen into that 
mistake; and therefore this explanation of his case 
may fitly form the starting-point this morning for an 
attempt to define and illustrate the proper province of 
feeling in religious experience. Without further refer- 
ence, therefore, to my text let me enter at once on this 
important and interesting though somewhat delicate 
and difficult subject. 

First of all, then, let me remark that feeling fol- 
lows intelligent conviction and belief of the truth of 
something that immediately concerns us as individuals. 
To take the illustration of Dr. McCosh, in his admi- 
rable work on u The Emotions " : " Four persons of very 
much the same age and temperament are travelling 
in the same vehicle. At a particular stopping-place 
it is announced to them that a certain individual has 
just died suddenly and unexpectedly. One of the com- 
pany looks perfectly stolid ; a second comprehends what 
has taken place, but is in no way affected ; the third 
looks and evidently feels sad; the fourth is over- 
whelmed with grief, which finds expression in tears, 
sobs, and exclamations. Whence the difference 
between the four individuals before us ? In one respect 
they are all alike. An announcement has been made 
to them. The first is a foreigner, and has not under- 
stood the communication; the second had never met 
with the deceased, and could have no special regard for 
him ; the third had often met with him in social inter- 
course and business transactions, and had been led to 
cherish a great esteem for him; the fourth was the 
brother of the departed, and was bound to him by a 



208 FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



thousand ties, earlier and later." 1 From this imaginary 
case, which every one feels is perfectly true to nature, 
it is evident that feeling follows faith in that which is 
clearly understood, and that it is strong or weak in pro- 
portion as that which is believed affects us personally in 
a nearer or more remote degree. Now, applying these 
principles to the Gospel, we find that feeling is the 
effect of faith in the clearly understood statements of 
the Word of God concerning sin and salvation, as 
affecting us as individuals. It is not first the feeling 
and then the faith; but it is first intelligence, then 
faith, then direct and immediate personal interest in 
that which is believed, and then feeling. But if this 
be a correct analysis, you will see at a glance how far 
wrong those are who make the absence of feeling in them 
an excuse for not coming to Christ, as well as those who 
are constantly sighing and crying for more feeling of 
love to Christ as an evidence of the genuineness of their 
religion. Their error does not simply consist in put- 
ting too high a value upon feeling, but also in putting 
it into the wrong place. Even if the sinner had feel- 
ing, that would not commend him to Christ; for if it 
did, it would be something in himself which divided 
with Christ the glory of his salvation, and we know 
that no countenance is given in Scripture to anything 
of that kind. Again, if the feeling of love to Christ 
is to be regarded as the only ground of assurance, that 
also is giving to feeling a value which does not of right 
belong to it, since, so far as the ground of assurance is 
within the heart, it consists of the character as a 
whole viewed as the fruit of the Spirit, while the 
emotion of love to Jesus is only one feature of that 
character. 

1 McCosh on the Emotions, p. 1, 



FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 209 



But that which I wish principally to insist on here, 
is that those who are sighing and crying directly for 
feeling, are beginning at the wrong end. They are, to 
use a common expression, putting the cart before the 
horse. They are calling for an effect without caring 
about the cause which is to produce it. Feeling follows 
faith in the statements of the Word of God concerning 
sin and salvation, as clearly understood by me in their 
application to me individually. If, therefore, I want 
feeling, I must turn my attention to these statements. 
If I want to feel my need of salvation, I must give 
good heed to what is said in the Bible about sin. 1 
must endeavor to fathom its terrible significance. I 
must realize that in all its depth it is true of me ; and 
then feeling will come of itself, such feeling as will 
make me cry, " What must I do to be saved ? " If again 
I want to have love to Jesus, I must seek to understand 
and believe all that is said in the Scriptures concerning 
his person and character and sacrifice on my behalf. 
I must endeavor to realize what I should have been and 
become if he had not undertaken for me, and in the 
proportion in which 1 succeed in doing that, love and 
gratitude will take possession of my heart. If I want 
to be joyful, I must attend to, understand, and believe 
the tidings of salvation that are to make me joyful. 
And so with every Christian emotion. It is not to be 
sought directly as an end; but it will come through 
our understanding of, and belief in, those statements 
that are adapted and designed to produce it, each in its 
own order; first the intelligence, then the faith, then 
the feeling. 

These things being so, you are already prepared 
to accept my second remark, to the effect that there 

14 



210 



FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



can be no religion, in the Christian sense of that word, 
without feeling. That must be evident from the truth 
already established that feeling follows faith. For if 
there be no feeling there has been no faith, and where 
there is no faith there is no religion, for "without 
faith it is impossible to please God." The emotional 
is just as truly a part of our nature as the intellectual 
or the moral, and as regeneration affects the whole 
nature, it must transfigure the emotional portion of it 
as really as the others. The new birth does not uproot 
or lop off any part of our humanity ; it only takes the 
sin out of it all. It does not eradicate our feelings, but 
it christianizes them. We still fear and love and hope 
and rejoice ; but the things which we fear, the objects 
which we love, the good which we hope for, and the mat- 
ters over which we rejoice, are different, — are, indeed, 
entirely the opposite of those which we feared, loved, 
hoped for, and rejoiced over before. All that we admit ; 
but, after all, that is only a part of the great transfor- 
mation which the Scriptures call regeneration. 

Therefore I go on in the third place to note that 
feeling is not the whole of religion. That which the 
Holy Ghost produces in us through faith in Jesus 
Christ, is a whole new nature, and as we have just seen, 
that nature includes the intellectual, the moral, and 
the volitional, as well as the emotional. Or if you 
will have it in another form, religion is character, and 
emotion is only one element of character. The 
important question, therefore, is not what or how does 
a man feel, but what is he ? As the man is, so are his 
feelings. If he be a new man, then just as his mind 
will be occupied with new thoughts, and his conscience 
will own a new Lord, and his will will obey a new 



FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 211 



master, and his conduct will serve his generation by 
the will of Cod, so his feelings will follow in their 
appropriate exercise. Mark 1 said again will follow. 
So the first duty, 1 reiterate it, is to have the man right, 
and that is to be secured by the giving of his heart to 
Christ to be renewed and sanctified by his Spirit. 
Leave the feelings out of the account for the moment, 
while you give yourself to Christ; and then, having 
done that, you will discover that they are a part of that 
self whom you have consecrated to the Lord. But 
they are not the whole of that self, and therefore they 
are not the whole of religion. Religion is right think- 
ing and right acting, as well as right feeling toward 
God and our fellow-men for Christ's sake. The feel- 
ing stands midway between the thinking and the acting, 
passing the one on, as it were, to the other; but it 
cannot be made a substitute for either, and only in the 
combination of the three have we the genuine holy 
character which is the outcome of regeneration. 

But now I advance another step, and remark in the 
fourth place that the feeling which does not lead to 
action, but terminates simply and only on itself, is 
always dangerous. The feeling which does not spring 
from intelligent faith is fanaticism ; on the other hand, 
that which does not lead to action is sentimentalism, 
and it is difficult to say which of the two is the more 
pernicious. But for the present I have to do only with 
the latter, and on the first blush of the matter it may 
sui-prise you when I allege that feeling which does not 
lead to action has a hardening influence on the heart. 
As Bishop Butler has put it ma very suggestive pas- 
sage in his Analogy, " From our very faculty of habits, 
passive impressions, by being repeated, grow weaker. " 



212 FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, 



We have a familiar illustration of that fact in the 
effect produced upon one by the constant reading of 
sensational novels. That, as every one knows, is a 
species of literary dram-drinking. To have the same 
effect produced, the dose must be constantly increased, 
until at length a point is reached when, no matter how 
large the dose, the old excitement is no longer felt. 
Nor is this the worst of it. For the oftener one weeps 
over the tale of fictitious misery, the less disposed he 
is to be moved by real suffering ; and so we can very 
well understand how the French executioner, whose 
heart was so hard as to care nothing whatever for the 
victims of his guillotine, yet wept profusely over the 
sorrows of Werther. 

Now precisely the same law holds in religious mat- 
ters. If emotion comes to be regarded as the whole of 
religion, and if it does not stimulate to holy activity, 
then by and by the emotion itself will disappear, and the 
heart will be hardened into utter impenetrability. The 
hearer who is intensely moved by one discourse, but goes 
away straightway forgetting all his impressions, and is 
not brought to immediate and decided Christian activ- 
ity, will be less moved by the next, and less by the next, 
until at length he becomes " past feeling, " and gives him- 
self over to work all manner of iniquity with greedi- 
ness. Hence, as Butler says again, " Going over the 
theory of virtue in one's thoughts, talking well, and 
drawing fine pictures of it, — this is so far from neces- 
sarily or certainly conducing to form a habit of it in him 
who thus employs himself, that it may harden the mind 
in a contrary course, and render it gradually more insen- 
sible ; that is, form a habit of insensibility to all moral 
considerations." All this comes of giving exclusive 
attention to the matter of feeling ; and so to escape from 



FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, 213 

that danger it is necessary that we should set ourselves 
strenuously to reduce our feelings to actions. The 
emotion must be made a motive principle, else the 
result will be most pernicious. If one is moved to 
love, let him seek some means of manifesting that love ; 
if to compassion, let him give his compassion an out- 
ward form in beneficence ; if to fear, let him exert him- 
self to guard against the danger of which he is afraid ; 
if to penitence, let him forsake the sin for which he 
feels regret; if to admiration, let him stir himself up 
to imitate, so far as he may, that which he admires. 
The tears which are " idle " will ultimately exhaust 
the fountain out of which they flow, and the feelings 
that are not fruitful in good works will by and by 
paralyze the heart, and render it entirely unimpressible ; 
for all such abuse mast end in impotence. 

But now to complete the presentation of the subject 
I must add, in the fifth place, that the feeling which 
leads to action is just for that reason less a matter of 
consciousness as feeling. It becomes transmuted into 
conduct ; and just as steam makes less noise when it is 
driving machinery than when it is being blown off, so 
the oftener feeling is transmuted into action the less 
does one come to be aware of the feeling that is in the 
action. For here, too, the law of habit comes into 
operation. In reading a book we have to go through a 
great many separate acts ; first we have to take cogni- 
zance of the individual letters, then of the separate 
words into which they form themselves, then of the 
clauses, then of the sentence, then of the bearing of 
the sentence on the object which the author has in view; 
but such is the force of habit that most of us now in 
reading are conscious only of the last of all these, 



2U 



FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



though they must all have been gone through in every 
case. Now the same is true of actions, for in each of 
these there is first a perception of duty, then an emo- 
tion of desire, or something analogous to that, then a 
volition, then the action; but habit has obliterated the 
consciousness of all save the volition and the action. 
Still they are all there, and if we should judge entirely 
of the action by the simple test of feeling, we should 
come to an entirely wrong decision regarding it. We 
saw a few minutes ago that passive emotions decay 
in vividness by repetition, and now we see that prac- 
tical habits strengthen by exercise ; so that we come 
to the conclusion thus expressed by Butler, that active 
habits may be gradually forming and strengthening 
by a course of acting upon such and such motives and 
excitements, whilst these motives and excitements are 
by proportionate degrees "growing less sensible, that 
is, are. continually less and less sensibly felt." Or to 
put it more simply, a man may be advancing in moral 
excellence by that very course which deadens his 
consciousness to his emotions. When holiness, there- 
fore, becomes a habit, we are less sensible of feeling, 
not because the feeling is not there, but because its 
operation has become automatic through the habit 
which we have acquired of turning it into action. 

The same truth may be made apparent in another way. 
Thus you are not so conscious of your affection for the 
members of your family when you are at work daily for 
their support, as when you are sitting by the fireside in 
the winter evening with them all around you ; but it is 
there all the same, forming one of the strongest motives 
for your business energy and enterprise. So you are not 
so conscious of your love to Jesus when you are battling 
with temptation, as when you are at his table of privi- 



FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 215 



lege ; but your very conflict and victory have sprung out 
of that love, since but for it they had not been. 

Now, narrowing into a conclusion, let me say that if 
the principles which to-day I have enunciated be true, 
as I think you must all admit they are, then mere feel- 
ing must be a very unsafe and unsatisfactory test of the 
genuineness of our interest in religion. The more habit- 
ual acts of holiness become, there must, as we have seen, 
be the less consciousness of emotion connected with 
them. The feeling that becomes a motive power does 
thereby so wholesomely spend itself, that there is noth- 
ing of it left for the mere luxury of enjoyment in itself. 
So it may be that the very absence of feeling may be a 
proof of progress rather than an evidence of indiffer- 
ence. May be, I have said, for we are not warranted to 
say universally it is. The true test is not the feeling 
but the life, not the emotion but the conduct, accord- 
ing to that law of Christ, " By their fruits ye shall 
know them." If, therefore, the life be Christlike, 
rooted in faith in Jesus, and devoted to obedience to 
him, then the feeling which prompted that obedience 
has stiffened into a principle, and so its absence in our 
consciousness as emotion will not be a sign of indiffer- 
ence. If again there be neither obedience in the life 
nor feeling in the heart, then the absence of feeling in 
such a case is an evidence of insensibility. If, once 
more, there be a gush of emotion which has no influ- 
ence on the life, and which is indulged in for the sake 
of enjoyment in the emotion itself, then the feeling is 
the merest sentimentalism, and is not only worthless as 
an evidence of piety, but positively injurious as tending 
to produce spiritual insensibility. 

This, however, is not all. Feeling is affected by so 
many other things that it is not safe to give it much 



216 FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



importance as a test of our Christianity. For it is 
influenced greatly by the state of the bodily health, 
and oftentimes the spiritual adviser is called in when 
really it is the medical attendant who is required. 
Again, it is affected by the intellectual calibre of the 
man. He who is represented in the parable by the 
stony ground, — the thin layer of earth on the top of a 
rock, — the man, that is, who has little intellect and a 
stony heart, — strange as it may seem, shoots suddenly 
up into emotion ; but, alas ! as quickly settles down into 
withered and hopeless apathy. And to mention only 
one other case : the man who is environed on every 
side by trial, as Job was here, is very apt to have his 
emotion tinctured by his trial. Certain diseases, as 
we know, are always attended with certain peculiar 
effects upon the feelings. Now if all these things are 
true, how foolish it is in us to take our feelings as 
the only test or evidence of the genuineness of our 
piety. The child on board ship thinks that the sky 
is moving to and fro ; but that is stationary, and it is 
the ship that is continually rolling. So the assurance 
that rests on mere feeling will be constantly unstable, 
and the man will imagine that God is changing toward 
him when the alteration is simply and only in himself. 
The true ground of assurance is that expressed by Paul, 
"I know whom I have believed," — the knowledge 
which we have of Christ; and they are blessed who 
have learned in this matter to turn away from the 
study of their own frames and feelings to the contem- 
plation of the Lord. 

But if the element of feeling must ever be an uncer- 
tain test of the genuineness of our religion, the absence 
of it ought to be no hindrance to any one's coming to 
Christ in simple faith for salvation. He who puts off 



FEELING IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



217 



his coming on the ground that he has no feeling, is 
thereby seeking something that will commend him to 
Christ. He is trying to get up something that will 
have some merit in it; and so he is seeking to be in 
part, at least, his own savior. But there can be no 
salvation that way. The sinner who would be saved 
must give up trust in everything but Christ. He must 
have no confidence in prayers, or tears, or anything, 
or any person, but Christ. And then, when he thus 
trusts Christ, the feeling will come in its own proper 
place to do its own proper work ; for it will come as 
love to the Lord who died for him and rose again, and 
it will constrain him to live only and always to the 
Saviour who has redeemed him at the cost of his own 
precious blood. Let no one, therefore, be deterred from 
coming to Christ because he has no feeling; but let 
each unconverted one here come to Christ as he is, and 
Christ will make him what he ought to be. 



XVII. 



THE PLACE AND POWER OF INDIVIDUALITY 
IN CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 

/ — yet not I. — 1 Cor. xv. 10, and Gal. ii. 20. 

This expression, used twice by the Apostle Paul, and 
each time in a passage referring to his personal experi- 
ence, may for that reason, as I believe, be regarded by us 
as characteristic of the manner in which he was accus- 
tomed to think and speak concerning himself and his 
work. He did not ignore his own individuality. He 
knew himself. He had a clear and correct apprehension 
of the qualities of character, idiosyncrasies of disposi- 
tion, and powers of mind by which he was distinguished 
from all other men. He knew what he could do, and what 
he could not do. He understood his own peculiarities, 
aptitudes, abilities, and limitations. He estimated these, 
also, at their true value, and put them in their proper 
place. He did not reckon them as of supreme impor- 
tance, for he is careful to say, " I live, yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me ; " and " I laboured, yet not I, but the 
grace of Cod which was with me." But neither did lie 
regard them as of no account, for he distinctly specifies 
in the one case that the life which he describes was his 
life, " I live ; " and in the other, that the labors which 
he performed were his works, " I laboured." There was 
that about his life as a Christian man, and his labors as 



CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 



219 



a Christian Apostle, which was clearly traceable to his 
own personality ; but the energizing influence which gave 
holiness to the one, and efficacy to the other, came from 
the grace and spirit of God, who wrought in him and 
through him and with him. The " 1 " was regenerated 
by Christ, yet so that it remained the " I; " and the 
labors were made effectual by the grace of God, yet so 
that they were conditioned and shaped by the " J." His 
life was different from that of every one else because it 
was his life ; but it was holy because it was Christ that 
lived in him. His labors were distinct from those of 
others because he could say, " I laboured ; " but they 
were so abundant and so fruitful because he could say, 
" I laboured, yet not I, but the grace of God which was 
with me." Fitly, therefore, may we take our two texts 
— which, indeed, are not so much two as one — as sug- 
gesting for our consideration at this time the place and 
power of individuality in Christian life and work. 

We begin at the foundation by remarking, in the first 
place, that there is a distinct individuality in every man 
which knows itself as and "me." It is no part 

of my present purpose to enter into a full metaphysi- 
cal inquiry how we come to the consciousness of our own 
existence as distinct personalities. The famous argu- 
ment of the great French philosopher, " I think, therefore 
I am," does not help us much, for, as you see, the " I," 
whose existence is inferred in the conclusion, has been 
already postulated in the premise ; if I know that I 
think, I already know that "I" am the " I " who thinks. 
We cannot get at it, therefore, by a process of reasoning. 
80 others have viewed it as an intuition, and others 
still as a conviction which comes to us naturally and 
irresistibly in connection with certain experiences. Per- 



220 CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 

haps Tennyson has given us the true genesis of the 
matter in his beautiful lines in " In Memoriam : " — 

44 The baby new to earth and sky, 

What time his tender palm is prest 
Against the circle of the breast, 
Has never thought that this is I. 

44 Put as he grows he gathers much, 
And learns the use of ' I ' and 4 me. 
And finds I am not what I see, 
And other than the things I touch 

44 So rounds he to a separate mind, 

From whence clear memory may begin, 
As through the frame that bounds him in 
His isolation grows defined." 

More akin to the object which we have in view, how- 
ever, is it to get at the constituent elements of the 
" self " that is in each of us. The germ of the whole, 
as it seems to me, is in the consciousness or experience 
of causation. I can and do produce certain effects on 
things outside of me by the exercise of a power inherent 
in me ; and that in which that power inheres, and by 
which it is put forth, is the " me " within me. Allied 
with this causation is free-will, which sits behind causa- 
tion and directs it at its pleasure. Then, as the result 
of free-will, is responsibility. The " I can " leads up 
to " I ought," and so consciousness develops into con- 
science. That is more or less the same in every man. 
But all this while I am exercising those powers of per- 
ception, memory, judgment, and the like, which we call 
intellectual, which are different in degree in different 
persons, and which thus give to each his distinctive 
mental character. Then come in temperamental pecu- 
liarities — however those may be explained — which give 



CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 



221 



their hue to all the rest, just as the stained glass in the 
window gives its own tint to the light which passes 
through it. To these must be added the influence of 
education, environment, experience, and the like, and 
the whole combine to form in a man that which we call 
his individuality. Now, as I have said, that is different 
and distinct in each. No one is precisely and in every 
respect the double of another. There is a generic like- 
ness between man and man which stamps all as human ; 
but there is also a specific difference in each which 
makes him recognizable as himself. Just as the fea- 
tures of the face in one man are different from those of 
all other men, so there are marks of individuality in the 
character of each. One is impulsive, impetuous, explo- 
sive ; another is calm, judicial, deliberate, and well bal- 
lasted. One is severely logical ; another is intensely 
intuitional. One is poetic ; another is prosaic. One is 
pre-eminently endowed with mental ability ; another is 
possessed of only average intellect ; and a third, perhaps, 
has less of mind than the common run of men. Nay, even 
among those who are of outstanding greatness there are 
other distinctions, as between Shakspeare and Milton, 
or between Bacon and Butler ; and the same is true of 
men at every point in the scale. But I need not dwell 
on this department of the subject, for the truth on which 
1 am insisting is universally admitted. 
m 

I go on to remark, therefore, in the second place, 
that when the Spirit of God regenerates a man, he does 
not destroy this individuality. Regeneration is not a 
change in the peculiarities by which a man is distin- 
guished, but rather the purification and consecration of 
these, and of the man himself as a whole, to a new ser- 
vice. No doubt it is said that " if any man be in Christ," 



222 CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 

or in the phraseology of my text, — for it comes to the 
same thing, — if Christ be living in any man, he is a 
new creature ; and we know that again and again Paul 
calls the regenerated man a " new man." Now, there 
is a deeply important sense in which that is true ; but 
there is another, no less important in its own place, in 
which it is also true that the man is the same man. 
The change which is wrought in regeneration is spirit- 
ual, affecting his character and life toward God, and 
turning all his energies, powers, and peculiarities into a 
new, because a holy direction ; but it does not directly 
and immediately, at least, change these energies, powers, 
and peculiarities themselves. Physically speaking, the 
man looks just as he did before. Perhaps a more placid 
and more happy expression comes into his face ; and if 
he has been addicted to evil habits, the dissipated and 
bloated appearance gradually passes away from his coun- 
tenance as the result of his altered life. But he is easily 
recognizable as himself, and no one would mistake him 
for somebody else. 

Now, precisely the same thing is true intellectually. 
As the result of his new interest in the word of God, 
there may come a quickening of his intelligence, so 
that he may become at length more vigorous mentally. 
Or from the new value which he has come to put upon 
himself, as a man redeemed by the blood of Christ, 
he may be impelled to assiduous self-culture, in order 
that he may make himself the best possible offering 
to his Lord, and that may give new brightness to his 
intellect. But these are indirect results of his having 
been regenerated, and not a part of his regeneration. 
The act of the Holy Spirit in quickening a soul into new- 
ness of life is not such as would change a half-witted man 
— for example, like Dr. Calamy's poor Joseph — into the 
intellectual peer of a Newton or an Edwards. 



CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 



223 



We all recognize that ; but the same thing is equally 
true of the qualities of what we call the temperament 
or disposition of a man. He who was impulsive before 
his regeneration will remain impulsive ; and though the 
Spirit of God may enable him to restrain that quality 
from running to a sinful extreme, yet it will still charac- 
terize his religious life. The man who was of melancholy 
temperament before he was regenerated will have his 
piety after regeneration shaded and sometimes clouded 
by its influence ; just as the cheerful man will manifest 
after his conversion a peculiarly cheerful Christianity. 
John did not lose his Johannine qualities when he 
became a disciple, and Peter was Peter to the end. 
The same natural qualities which distinguished Paul 
as a persecutor came out in Paul the Apostle ; and 
the differences between such men as Luther and Cal- 
vin were rooted in the original idiosyncrasies of the 
men, and such as would have distinguished them from 
each other if they had never been regenerated. The 
individuality of a man, therefore, furnishes the mould 
into which the new life of the Holy Spirit runs, and 
gives to that life its character and shape. What a great 
annual regeneration we see every spring-time in the 
world of Nature when the earth renews her verdure, 
and the trees put on their foliage, and the birds resume 
their songs. But the new life does not make them all 
alike ; each flower and tree and bird retains its own 
individuality. All the trees do not take the leaves of 
the oak, royal as that is ; neither do all the flowers 
assume the appearance of the rose, beautiful though 
that may be ; while the birds do not unite in the one 
song of the lark, ecstatic and inspiring though that is. 
But we have birch and maple and beech and chestnut 
in the wood ; we have lily and violet and daisy and pink 



si 



224 CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 

among the flowers ; and the notes of the thrush and the 
bullfinch and the blackbird fill the morning hour with 
music. Thus the new life in flower and tree and bird 
reveals itself through the distinctive peculiarities of 
each, and thereby are secured the wondrous harmony 
of colors in the landscape, and the marvellous yet at- 
tractive medley of the chorus of the grove. So it is also 
with regenerated men. The new life lifts up into itself 
the individuality of each believer, and uses that as a 
means of manifesting the grace of God. Thus it comes 
that in the Church of Christ we have not the dull mo- 
notony of uniformity, but the living beauty of variety. 

It is but a corollary from what I have just said, when 
I go on to remark, in the third place, that when the 
Spirit of God works through a man, he uses the individ- 
uality of the man in all its features. Precisely as the 
Holy Spirit respects human individuality in regeneration, 
he employs it in the work which he seeks to perform 
through the instrumentality of the renewed man. He 
makes it largely determine the kind of service which 
the man is to render to his generation and to the 
church, and it colors and qualifies that service itself. 
For illustration of this we need not go beyond the limits 
of the Word of God itself. Thus take the case of inspi- 
ration, and you will see how truly each of the sacred 
writers might have said, " I, yet not I, but the Spirit of 
God in me." Indeed that was substantially what David 
did say when he affirmed, " The Spirit of the Lord spake 
by me, and his word was in my tongue." I grant 
indeed that the result of inspiration was to secure the 
accurate transmission of God's message to men, while 
in sanctification the Spirit of God does not secure, 
here at least, perfect holiness of life in the believer, 



CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 



225 



and in Christian activity he does not lead the believer, 
here at least, to the performance of a perfect work. 
But if the individuality was not disturbed but used in 
inspiration, the result being such as I have described, 
we are warranted in concluding-, a fortiori, that it is not 
disturbed while the Spirit works in man to will and to 
do of his good pleasure. Now we have clear evidence of 
the existence both of the Divine and human elements 
in the Scriptures. That God and not men merely was 
the author of these books is apparent from the character 
of the revelation made in them ; from the predictions 
which they contain and which have been so marvel- 
lously fulfilled ; from the unity which pervades them, so 
that, though many men were engaged in producing 
them, and though the time of their production extended 
over nearly two thousand years, we distinctly perceive 
" one increasing purpose " running through them from 
first to last; and especially from the Christ who is in the 
centre of them all and whose light irradiates each partic- 
ular part. But the distinctively human element is no 
less conspicuous in each of the several portions of 
which they are composed. The Egyptian training which 
came to be a part of the individuality of Moses fitted 
him for the reception of the plan and the superintend- 
ence of the erection of the tabernacle, and it comes out 
as clearly also in the exactitude of the statutes which 
his books contain. The lyric tension of David's poetic 
soul, so responsive in its vibrations to joy or sorrow, to 
penitence or praise, is distinctively different from the 
cool calculating philosophy of Solomon, which took time 
to shape itself into epigrammatic and aphorismal pro- 
verbs. No one could mistake the style of Isaiah with 
its lofty grandeur and magnificent cadence for that of 
his plain, homely country brother and contemporary, 

15 



226 CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 

Amos, with his frequent allusions to the life of a 
herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. Ezekiel, 
like a priest as he was, put much of his prophecy into 
the description of a restored Temple ; and Daniel saw 
visions of composite figures like those which we now 
know were common among the Babylonian sculptures of 
his day, and which therefore he must have often seen. 
Thus like the watermark in the paper which is the sig- 
nature of its maker, the individuality of style which is 
woven into each of these Old Testament books is the 
signature of its human authorship, — the " I," which in 
this case also is as we have seen accompanied by the 
u yet not T, but the Spirit of God." But the same is 
true of the Apostles and evangelists. No one can 
peruse Mark's Gospel attentively without perceiving 
his keen eye for minute matters of look and gesture, 
and his eager energy as manifested by the constantly 
recurring " straightway." The very youngest reader 
feels, even if he cannot explain, the difference between 
the Gospel by John and the Epistle to the Romans ; 
and the plainest and least educated man can tell the 
distinction between the practical pungency of the Epistle 
of James and the weird majesty of the Book of Reve- 
lation. Clearly therefore the inspiring Spirit used the 
individualities of the writers in giving us the Scriptures. 

But what is thus so markedly true in the matter of in- 
spiration is equally conspicuous in the lower departments 
of spiritual effort. The idiosyncrasy of the man points 
out to him the work which he is to undertake, and 
colors and qualifies his performance of that work. 
Peter's personal feelings and peculiarities designated 
him for labor among the Jews, and so the Spirit " wrought 
in him to the Apostleship of the circumcision." Paul 
again as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, yet at the same time 



CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 



227 



a native Hellenist and a Roman citizen, was specially 
fitted for a universal Apostleship ; and so the Spirit in 
him "was mighty toward the Gentiles." So also wc 
account for the specialty in the service performed at 
different times in the history of the church by such 
different men as Athanasius, Augustine, Bernard, Wyc- 
liffe, Tindal, Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Whitefield, 
and a host of others. 

These were all men possessed of marked individuality, 
and easily distinguishable from each other and from other 
men. Each was different from each of the rest, yet 
Christ was in them all and his grace was with them all ; 
and it was through that in each which constituted what 
logicians would call his differentia that his special work 
was accomplished by the grace of God. No one of 
them could have done the others' work, and each was 
fitted by his individuality for his own. So in depart- 
ments lowlier still, the man with an organizing faculty 
finds his sphere as a superintendent in some mission 
school ; just as the woman with much motherhood with- 
in her, an aptness to interest and instruct and develop 
the little ones, sees and seizes her opportunity as the 
teacher of an infant class. Thus, whatever our distinc- 
tive idiosyncrasies may be, we may be sure that we 
have them, not that we may repress and destroy them 
altogether, but that they may be employed by the Spirit 
of God for the accomplishing through us of a work which 
no one but ourselves can perform. In the orchestra 
each instrument has its own office, and if one be silenced, 
none of the others can fully supply its place ; and so in the 
service of our common Lord, by works of faith and 
labors of love each of us has his own note to sound, and 
it ought to be our endeavor to give the Spirit of God free 
play, through each of our characteristics, for the sounding 
of that note. 



228 



CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 



But now, advancing another step, I remark in the 
fourth place that the actual result in all cases is to be 
traced to the operation of the Spirit of God through 
our individuality. The man is the instrument, but the 
Spirit is the hand that works with it ; and the glory is 
due not to the instrument, but to him who uses it and 
gives it efficacy. He knows what agent to employ for 
any special purpose, just as the skilled artificer knows 
which of his tools to take for the accomplishment of 
that which he has presently in view ; and he knows 
also how to use it for the gaining of his end. In a 
large manufactory there are multitudes of separate 
machines for different purposes. On one floor you may 
find, as I did a day or two ago in a printing establish- 
ment in this city, a whole array of printing-presses ; on 
another a large number of folding-machines ; on yet 
another sewing-machines, and cutting-machines, and 
what not, — each adapted for its separate work, but all 
moved by the same engine. The power comes from 
the same source, and that after all does all the work. 
Now of course men are not machines; but the analogy 
may help us to understand how, though there may be in 
each of us distinct aptitudes and abilities fitting us for 
different kinds of service, yet the Spirit of God may 
be in all of us, the energizing and operative principle. 
We ourselves, separated from that Spirit, could do noth- 
ing. He might work without us, but he has chosen to 
work through us and with us. Still, though that is the 
case, the work is done by him ; and so, no matter what 
our success may be, we must say with Paul, " I laboured, 
yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." 
This is one of the commonplaces of our faith ; yet perhaps 
it has become so commonplace to us that it ceases to 
produce its appropriate result. For if we considered 



CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 



229 



it fully we should never be surprised at the results 
flowing from the agency of any man, since these are 
all due to God ; and we should never be dismayed by the 
magnitude of any undertaking to which we are fairly 
called, since it is to be accomplished not by us, but by 
God. We often marvel at the fruits of the labors of a 
single individual, and marvellous they would be if they 
were attributable to him ; but who can limit the Holy 
One of Israel, and why should we be surprised at the 
greatness of anything done by him ? If we had faith in 
him, our wonder would cease ; " for is anything too hard 
for the Lord ? " Then on the other hand, if we had this 
faith we should not be found so frequently faltering 
before difficult duty. When Theresa, whom the Span- 
iards call a saint, started out to build a hospital with 
nothing but three halfpence, and they wondered at 
her rashness, she replied, " Theresa and three halfpence 
are nothing, but God and three halfpence are sufficient ; " 
and she carried it through. Ah, do we really believe the 
words, '* Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world;" and " Greater is he that is in you than he 
that is in the world " ? If we did, we should oftener see 
that wonderful antithesis which the world does not 
understand, — the loftiest courage in closest alliance with 
the deepest humility ; the " I " doing and daring every- 
thing because of its consciousness of the u not I," but 
Christ living in it ; the individual rising above himself 
because he has fully surrendered himself to the Spirit 
of God to be inhabited and energized by him. 

To sum up, then, let us distil the essence of our dis- 
course into these two lessons. First, respect your own 
individuality. Be content to be yourself ; but let that 
self be purified, energized, and inhabited by the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Do not attempt to force yourself into 



230 CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. 

the mould of the experience of another. Be not con- 
cerned if your Christian experience should be different 
from that of others. Come to Christ in your own way, 
only see to it that it is Christ you come to ; live your 
own life, but be sure it is a Christian life ; do your 
own work, but take good heed that it is Christian work. 
David in Saul's armor was not more encumbered than 
you would be were you to force yourselves into the 
individuality of another. Stand then on your right to 
be yourself. As one has well said, "No really great man 
does his work by imposing his maxims on his disciples. 
He evokes their life." He awakens them to be them- 
selves. This is what Christ does for his disciples. He 
gets at the inner fountain of their being and then lets 
the streams of his influence flow thence through their 
individuality. Let him do so with you. 

Then in the second place give God all the glory for what 
you are and have done. It is he that worketh in you to 
will and to do, and the language of your hearts ought ever 
to be, " Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy 
name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake." 
He is the noblest preacher who is distinctively himself, 
imitating no other's manner and copying no other's style, 
while yet he preaches not himself, but Christ ; and 
that is the highest type of Christian who is himself, 
while yet Christ is seen and felt to be living in that 
self, and working through it. This will secure origi- 
nality of enterprise as well as success of effort, and lead 
to the same result in our case as in Paul's, when after 
his conversion it is recorded of those around him that 
" they glorified God in him." 



XVIII. 



THE READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 

And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of 
peace. — Ephesians vi. 15. 

The great Apostle was much given to the use of 
illustrations. Like his divine Master, he clearly saw 
the analogy between things external and things internal 
and spiritual, and employed the one for the purpose 
of making the other more easily intelligible. By the 
relation of the members of the body to each other, and 
to the body as a whole, he illustrated the unity of the 
church as the body of Christ, and the duty of its mem- 
bers to him and to each other. The athletic games of 
the Greeks were made by him to illuminate the Chris- 
tian life, and the manner in which its duties are to be 
discharged ; and in the passage from which my text is 
taken, the different pieces of the armor of a Roman 
soldier are employed to illustrate the spiritual furni- 
ture of the good soldier of Jesus Christ for the conflict 
which he has continually to wage. Nor, when you 
think of it, could it be said to be unnatural for him to 
take spiritual lessons from such a quarter; for he 
had come both frequently and intimately into inter- 
course with the soldiers of the imperial army. They 
were familiar figures in the streets of Tarsus and Jeru- 
salem, where most of his early days were spent. He 



232 READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 

could not but meet them often in such colonies as the 
Pisidian Antioch, Troas, and Philippi. He had been 
accompanied and guarded by them on that famous 
midnight journey from Jerusalem to Cesarea. A 
band of them had been his fellow voyagers in the corn 
ship which was wrecked upon the coast of Malta, and 
at the very time when he was dictating this letter a 
soldier of the Prsetorian guard was chained to his right 
arm. It was no wonder therefore that he should have 
become familiar with the different pieces of armor 
worn by them, or that he should find in them much 
that suggested spiritual analogies and lessons for the 
prosecution of the Christian life. In fact, he came to 
regard the soldier as a parabolic picture of the Chris- 
tian man, and he has in these verses made a spiritual 
use of everything about him. It would be deeply 
interesting to take up the whole description; but to 
do that as it should be done would take not one 
discourse, but many, and therefore we must make a 
selection. I take to-day the shoes, or sandals, both 
because there is among us much ignorance of the mean- 
ing of the Apostle's reference to them, and because, 
when rightly understood, that reference may be very 
helpful to us in our daily experience. 

The allusion of Paul in the text is not, as some have 
supposed, to the greaves, which were a kind of military 
legging, but to the calic/ce, or sandals, which were worn 
by the ancient warriors, and the soles of which were 
thickly studded with hobnails. 1 Now what precisely 
corresponds to these sandals in the armor of the Chris- 
tian man ? Not the G-ospel of peace itself, as some 
commentators have supposed, nor as others would 
explain the phrase, the foundation or firm base of the 

1 Eadie, on Ephesians in loco. 



READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 233 



Gospel of peace. It is true, indeed, that the word here 
rendered " preparation " is used in the Septuagint to 
mean foundation; but such a sense is altogether out 
of harmony with the metaphor here employed. The 
Apostle is not speaking in this place of the ground on 
which the Christian soldier stands, but of the sandals 
which he wears, and these only can be "the prepara- 
tion " spoken of. But what is meant by " preparation " ? 
When you ask a chemist what a particular bottle con- 
tains, he will sometimes reply, " It is a preparation of 
this or that ; " and so we are apt to say that the prepara- 
tion of the Gospel of peace is some special modification 
of the Gospel. But neither is that the particular shade 
of meaning which the word expresses. It signifies the 
state of preparation which is wrought out in a man 
through the possession of the peace which the Gospel 
confers upon believers. It would be less ambiguous if 
we were to read it, "the preparedness," or "the readi- 
ness " of the Gospel of peace, and the illustration of the 
Apostle may be thus paraphrased: "Like as soldiers 
have their feet shod with sandals, armed with iron, as 
a preparation or defence against the roughness, and a 
security against the slipperiness or miriness of the 
roads, so do ye arm yourselves against the slippery 
temptations of your Christian course by having in you 
that readiness for every emergency which is the result 
of unfeigned acceptance of the Gospel of peace." 1 Or, 
putting it in a yet more definite form, the feet are the 
instruments, and therefore the appropriate symbols of 
motion ; and the Christian soldier whose career is a 
march and a battle, and a battle and a march, must 
always keep himself in marching order. He must be 
ready for either marching or fighting at a moment's 

1 Bloomfield, Greek Testament on the passage. 



234 READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 

notice, and he is to get that readiness from the Gospel 
of peace. For "the possession of peace with God 
creates blessed serenity of heart, and confers upon the 
mind peculiar and continuous celerity of action and 
motion. There is nothing to disconcert or perplex it, 
or to divide and retard its energies. " 1 

Such, expressed as briefly and clearly as possible, is 
the true meaning of the text. Let us now see what, as 
Christians, those things are for which we ought to be 
always ready, and how the Gospel of peace gives us 
readiness for them. Now, as regards the first of these 
two questions, the true answer is that we ought to be 
ready for anything which we are called to face as the 
people of God still living in the world. But that is 
too general a statement to give us anything like a 
proper sense of the full gravity of the case ; and if we 
would get that we must descend, in some degree at 
least, to particulars. 

First of all, then, we must be ready for service. 
The believer is not saved by his works; but he is saved 
that he may work, and the genuineness of his new life 
is to be manifested by service. Like David, he is to 
" serve his generation by the will of God. " Everything 
which he does is to be done out of regard to God, and 
the particular sphere of labor which he is to fill is to 
be defined for him by the circumstances and necessities 
ot the generation to which he belongs. We are not 
required to do precisely the same things as our fathers 
did, but cherishing the same principles as our fathers 
cherished, we are to apply these to the new needs of 
our own times ; and so the Christian service is kept 
from being stereotyped, and there is always need for 

1 Eadie, on Ephesians in loco. 



READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 235 



inventiveness in the finding of new ways of applying 
Christianity to meet the new necessities. The Gospel 
is suited to every age in the world's history; but the 
methods which are adopted for bringing it to bear upon 
men must vary with the state and condition of the men 
with whom we have to deal. For example, the service 
of one generation of the people of God in this country, 
and in one department, was the mitigation of the hard- 
ships incidental to slavery; that of the next was the 
emancipation of the slaves themselves, and the destruc- 
tion of slavery as an institution ; and that of the next is 
the education and elevation of the freedmen, that they 
may worthily perform the duties of citizens among us. 
Now the possession of peace with God, much more the 
assurance of the possession of the peace of God within 
us, will give us readiness for the performance of the 
service which is required of us by the will of God. and 
defined for us by the necessities of our own generation. 
For where there is peace there is whole-souledness : 
there is nothing to disturb the attention, divide the 
heart, or divert the mind ; and so he who possesses it 
can give himself wholly to that, to which he gives 
himself at all. He can and will say of it, " This one 
thing I do. " Whatever he is in, he is in altogether; 
and so his service is that of a whole man. He never 
thinks of serving two masters. The peace which he 
enjoys unifies his heart, while the fact that he has got 
it as a free gift from God so fills him with love to 
God that he seeks to make his work the very best 
which he can do. The possession of this peace will 
keep him also from being fastidious about the place in 
which he serves. For in a heart that is filled with the 
peace of the Gospel there will be no room for any mean 
and petty jealousies of other people, and the man who 



236 READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 

is thus blessed will not be so anxious to get the first 
place, as to do that which most needs to be done. Tt 
is said by some one that if an angel were sent to earth 
on the business of God, he would be equally ready to 
till the ground or to sit upon a throne, because his 
one desire would be to do God's will ; and similarly, 
the man who has peace with God will accept with equal 
readiness the meanest or the most prominent position, 
because his desire will be to work for God, and do first 
that which needs to be first attended to. You see, 
therefore, how true it is that peace is power, and how 
that power is spent in the service which we render to 
our God. 

But in the second place the Christian must be 
always ready for sacrifice, and the possession of the 
peace of God will give him that readiness. When the 
Lord Jesus laid down the conditions of discipleship he 
said, "If any man willeth to come after me, let him 
deny" or renounce "himself, and take up his cross, and 
follow me ; " and in the parallel passage in Luke the 
words are, " Let him take up his cross daily. " Now 
that virtually means that the Christian must be ready 
to follow Christ at whatever cost, — even, if need be, 
at the cost of life itself. He is not to go out of his way 
seeking for a cross, for that would be to make himself 
a " martyr by mistake ; " but if, while moving on his 
appointed path of duty, he is confronted with a cross, 
then he is to take up that and humbly and bravely 
bear the suffering and sacrifice which it imposes, for 
Christ's sake. Then, as he never can tell when pre- 
cisely he will be met by such a cross, he must hold 
himself always in readiness for it. 

Many of you must have seen the beautiful and sug- 



READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 237 



gestive device by which the Christian's true feeling 
as to what may be before him has been symbolized. 
In the centre of the picture is a magnificent ox. On 
the one side there is an altar with a fire upon 
it, and everything prepared for sacrifice, and on the 
other there is a plough with a yoke all arranged 
for being put on the neck of the patient animal; 
while beneath there is the motto in Latin, sig- 
nifying "Ready for either." So the Christian must 
aim at being always ready, either for the plough of 
service or for the altar of sacrifice. That was the 
case with Paul when he said : " And now behold I go 
bound in the Spirit unto J erusalem, not knowing the 
things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy 
Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and 
afflictions abide me. But none of these things move 
me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I 
might finish my course with joy, and the ministry 
which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the 
Gospel of the grace of God. " And again : " What mean 
ye to weep and to break mine heart ? for I am ready, 
not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for 
the name of the Lord Jesus. " And the secret of all 
this was that he had in his heart the peace with God 
which springs out of the willing acceptance of the 
Gospel, and of the Saviour whom it reveals. You 
cannot terrify the man who is at peace with God ; for 
when you do your worst upon him, you but open the 
death door through which he passes into the presence 
chamber of his Lord, to share his glory and his hap- 
piness for evermore. You know the sublime thunder 
psalm of the "sweet singer of Israel." It is the 
twenty-ninth in the Psalter, and describes the com- 
ing up of a terrific storm from the Mediterranean to 



238 READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 

Jerusalem, as seen by a spectator on Mount Zion. 
First it is seen over the waters of the Mediterra- 
nean, — "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;" 
next the storm is breaking the cedars of Lebanon ; 
then it shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. And as it 
gradually comes up and up toward the Holy City, and 
rolls out its awful reverberations immediately overhead, 
there comes this assurance of safety : " The Lord will 
give strength unto his people ; the Lord will bless his 
people with peace." It is the very climax of sub- 
limity ; but it is also an external figure of the spiritual 
calmness of the man, who, amid the mutterings and 
thunderings of his earthly enemies, has within his heart 
the peace of God. Having God with him, he can 
sustain no loss or damage, and every sacrifice which he 
is called to make is cheerfully offered; for the Lord 
is able to give him more than others take away. Men 
did not give him his peace, and they cannot take it 
away ; and so long as that is true, everything is well 
with him, and he is ready for anything. 

But passing on to another point, let me say in the 
third place here, that the Christian should be always 
ready for sorrow, and that the Gospel of peace will give 
him that readiness. The believer does not escape 
sorrow in the world. He knows neither in what form 
nor at what time it will come upon him. But it will 
come in some form or other, sooner or later in his expe- 
rience. It may be caused by the loss through bereave- 
ment of those who are nearest and dearest to him, or 
through the estrangement of friends from him, or 
through reverse of fortune and the coming on him of 
great adversity ; but it surely will come, and he ought 
to be ready for its coming. But where shall he get 



READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 239 

that readiness? Not from philosophy; that may make 
a Stoic of him, and lead him to submit, somewhat 
haughtily, to the inevitable, but it will give him 
neither the resignation nor the consolation of the 
Christian. Pride will not give it to him, for that will 
only wrap him in the mantle of seclusion, and make 
him discontented and irritable with God and all around 
him. But the Gospel of peace will give it to him, for 
that assures him that everything that comes to him 
is under the supervision and control of God. That 
reveals to him that God is his Father, and that in all 
his dealings with his people he dealeth with them as 
with children, and therefore in the tenderest love and 
the highest wisdom. That lets him see through the 
cross into the heart of God, and leads him to reason 
that he who spared not his own Son, but delivered him 
up for us all, being himself unchangeable, still loves 
us, even when he permits trouble to come upon us ; and 
lifting the veil that hides the future from view, that 
tells him that "our light afflictions, which are but for a 
moment, work out for us a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory. " So the Lord is his comforter 
under every sorrow; and knowing the riches of his 
consolation, he is ready for sorrow, whensoever God 
is pleased to send it on him. Look at Job and see how 
he bore himself when one terrible affliction came upon 
him after another with the greatest suddenness and 
severity, and as you hear him say, "The Lord gave 
and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of 
the Lord," you have an illustration of the power which 
the possession of peace with God has in the preparing 
of the heart for sorrow. Let us see, therefore, that we 
acquaint ourselves with God, and be at peace with him, 
that so we may be able to sing with the sacred poet: 



240 READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 

" God is our refuge and strength, a very present help 
in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth 
be removed, and though the mountains be carried into 
the midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar 
and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the 
swelling thereof. " 

But I remark in the last place, that the Christian 
should be ready for death, and that the Gospel of peace 
will give him that readiness. You know the solemn 
exhortation of the Lord himself, — " Be ye also ready, 
for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man 
cometh." That which we most of all need in the 
prospect of our leaving the world is readiness to go. 
Nay, that readiness, rightly understood, is all we need. 
This is most impressively taught us, singularly enough, 
by the great dramatist, in one of his most thrilling 
tragedies, albeit many of its readers have never felt the 
full force of his words, or even marked the words 
themselves until they have been pointed out to them. 
When Horatio seeks to dissuade Hamlet from his last 
conflict, and offers to apologize to his adversary for his 
non-appearance, the prince replies : " Not a whit ; we 
defy augury. There 's a special providence in the fall- 
ing of a sparrow. If it be now, 't is not to come; if it 
be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it 
will come: the readiness is all." Ah, yes! the readi- 
ness is all. And in what does that readiness consist ? 
Not in any special occupation at the moment, — for it 
matters not what the Christian may be doing when the 
summons comes, — but in the habitual character of the 
soul; not in the performance of any rite, such as the 
observance of the supper, or the reception of extreme 
unction ; no, but in the faith which rests on Jesus 



READINESS OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. 241 

Christ, and in the possession of that peace which he 
bestows. This it was which upheld Paul, when, in the 
near anticipation of death, he said: "I am now ready 
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 
I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course ; 
I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for 
me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the right- 
eous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me 
only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. " 
What doth hinder, my brethren, that we should have 
this peace of heart now ? It will make life sweeter, 
more useful, more blessed, as long as we are to live 
upon the earth, and it will make death only the gate 
into the palace of the king, with whom we shall reign 
in glory everlastingly. 



10 



N 



XIX. 



THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 

Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou know- 
est not now, but thou shalt understand hereafter. — John 
xiii. 7 (Revised Version). 

These words belong to one of the most familiar nar- 
ratives in the Gospel history. The disciples were 
sitting with their Master at the table at which the 
Lord's supper was instituted. He had just informed 
them that one of them should betray him, and though 
for a few moments that announcement filled them 
with consternation and sorrow, yet the impression was 
only temporary, for very soon they were engaged in a 
most unseemly and ill-timed discussion as to which of 
them should be accounted the greatest. This was not 
the first occasion on which that question had been 
debated among them, and ever as it came up they had 
been severely, yea, somewhat sternly, reproved by their 
Lord for allowing it to arise. But this time, with 
Gethsemane and Calvary so immediately before him, 
he dealt in a peculiarly tender manner with their fault. 
He met it with an acted parable, wherein he set before 
them the object of his mission into the world, and 
the sacrifice which his coming into it involved, and then 
repeated in another form the sentiment which he had 
expressed before in these words, "He that will be 
greatest among you let him be your servant, even as 



THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME, 243 

the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister and to give himself a ransom for many. " 

The acted parable was on this wise. Rising from the 
table round which they were assembled, and while they 
were at supper, he laid aside his upper garment, girt 
himself with a towel, filled a basin with water, and 
washed their feet. Then when he had finished he 
enforced the moral of his procedure by the words, 
" Know ye what I have done unto you ? Ye call me 
Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am. If I 
then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye 
also ought to wash one another's feet." 

Now while this parable in action was being carried 
out, the Lord came to Peter with the intention of 
washing his feet, and that impulsive Apostle interposed 
with the objection so well meant, but so greatly mis- 
taken, " Lord, dost thou wash my feet ? " This was at 
once set aside by the reply, " What I do thou knowest 
not now, but thou shalt understand hereafter ; " and then 
after a little further conversation Peter submitted to 
the will of his Lord. Thus the words of the text have 
special and primary reference to the meaning of the 
washing of his disciples' feet by our Lord, and they have 
their original fulfilment in the explanation of that act 
furnished by our Saviour himself, and which he begins 
by saying, " Know ye, " or understand ye, — for the word 
is the same as that which the Revisers have translated 
" understand " in the text, and is altogether different 
from that in the clause, "thou knowest not now, " — 
understand ye, " what I have done unto you ? " The 
" hereafter " of the text, therefore, is the " hereafter " 
of a few minutes. There was in it, as it was originally 
used by the Lord Jesus, no direct allusion to the future 
life, though the principle applies, with even greater 



244 THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 

force, to the hereafter that is beyond the grave ; and my 
purpose this morning is to set clearly before you the 
meaning of the principle itself, the area which it covers, 
and the influence which it should exert upon us in our 
daily lives. 

First let us look at the principle itself. Briefly 
expressed, it is that the difficulties of the present are 
often explained by the lapse of time, so that what may 
be hard to unravel to-day may be easily disentangled 
after a few months, or it may be years, have gone. 
The topic of the morning, therefore, may be announced 
as the interpreting power of time. 

There is something in the very fact that an event is 
past which enables us to understand it better than we 
did when it was happening. We all recognize that 
there is truth as well as beauty in the Laureate's 
lines, — 

" Or that the past will always win 
A glory from its being far ; 
And orb into the perfect star 
We saw not when we moved therein." 

When we are in the midst of any movement, we are 
too close upon it to judge of it aright, and so we either 
overestimate its importance, or fail to recognize its 
full significance. But after it has done its work, it is 
put, so to say, into its right perspective, and we see it 
correctly. While it was going on it was unfinished, 
but now that it is past it is completed, and we can 
thereby understand it better. The proverb that "fools 
should not see things that are only half done " has put 
this view of the case in a compact and portable form, 
which carries conviction into every mind; and if we but 



THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 245 

remembered it more frequently we might be saved from 
many an unnecessary perplexity and many a sorrowful 
experience. 

But while this interpreting result may be produced 
by the lapse of time taken merely by itself, it is inten- 
sified by what that passing of the present into the past 
may bring, almost always, indeed, does bring, along 
with it. Thus, for one thing, it brings a growth in the 
individual's own intelligence, which helps him to an 
explanation of what before was difficult. Your little 
child puts a question to you, which you find it impos- 
sible to answer, not because the whole difficulty is not 
plain to you, for you have got for yourself the right 
solution, but because he has not yet the intelligence to 
take in that solution. You cannot put it into his 
vocabulary, and you must wait until by his mental 
growth that vocabulary has increased before you can 
hope to make the matter clear to him. So you tell him 
to defer the question, and then when some time has 
elapsed, and his education has developed him into suffi- 
cient intelligence, he gets the solution for himself, and 
does not need to ask any one concerning it. Which of 
us has not had this verified in his own studies ? While 
you were yet, let me suppose, in your teens, you took up 
a work, which you heard your elders speak of with the 
highest appreciation, and began to read it for yourself. 
It was, say, the " In Memoriam " of Tennyson ; but in 
that stage of your career you could make little or 
nothing of it, and you laid it aside, with the feeling that 
it had been extravagantly overpraised. After some 
years, however, you chanced to hear a lecturer refer to 
the same poem in terms of highest commendation, and 
you resolved to make another attempt at its perusal. 
This time you saw a great deal in what before you 



246 THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 



thought to be meaningless or obscure; but still there 
was much that was dark, and it was only after years 
more had elapsed that you grew into the understanding 
of it all, and felt that there was no extravagance in 
the statement that it is one of the finest contributions 
which have been made to the literature of the English 
language in this nineteenth century of the Christian era. 
Thus one measures his mental growth by the degree in 
which he rises toward the mastery of some thoughtful 
work which has taxed his ability to the utmost. 

Still again time carries in it the educating influence 
of experience, and that contributes to the better under- 
standing of what was obscure in the past. A man sees 
only what he has the power to see, and the power to 
see depends a good deal on the environment of the seer. 
Standing in the daylight one cannot ordinarily observe 
the stars ; but if you put me at the bottom of a deep 
mine-shaft I will clearly descry the planet that is pass- 
ing at the moment overhead, even though on the surface 
of the earth it be bright as noonday and all the stars 
invisible. Now few things clarify the spiritual percep- 
tion like experience. In early youth one finds it diffi- 
cult to understand many of the Psalms ; but in maturer 
life, after he has had trial of disappointment, or per- 
sonal affliction, or the treachery of professed friends, 
or the ingratitude of those whom he has benefited, he 
does not require a commentator to make them clear to 
him ; or rather, God himself, through his own experi- 
ence, has been their true interpreter, and he is willing 
to wait for his explanation of the rest. Dr. Duff found 
the key to the vindication of what are called "the 
imprecatory psalms " in the horrors of the Indian 
Mutiny, and one begins to understand why he has been 
afflicted when he finds that his own trials have put into 



THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 247 

his heart sympathy for the sufferings of others, and 
charity for their faults. 

Finally, here we must remember that the lapse of 
time gives opportunity to the individual for the enjoy- 
ment of the teachings of God the Holy Spirit. These 
disciples did not fully comprehend the Lord's mean- 
ing in the washing of their feet until after they had 
received the Holy Ghost. He was promised to them 
" that he might guide them into all truth, " and " bring 
all things to their remembrance whatsoever Christ 
had said unto them," and his ministry extends 
to all who love the Saviour and keep his com- 
mandments. He carries on his operations not only 
by direct suggestions, but also through the words 
of men and the dispensations of Providence, and the 
result of all is that believers under his instructions 
grow in acuteness of spiritual perception, and come to 
understand much which was before incomprehensible. 
In proof of this, one has only to look at the contrast 
between intelligent men of the world and simple-minded 
believers in their judgment of spiritual things. When 
the celebrated statesman, William Pitt, accompanied 
his friend Wilberforce to hear Richard Cecil preach, 
he declared that he could not understand what the 
minister would be at, though his companion affirmed 
that it was clear to the intelligence of many in the 
audience who had not a tithe of his ability, because 
they were taught of the Spirit. When the Holy Ghost 
begins to instruct a man we may look for great profi- 
ciency, for we may say of him with Elihu, "Who 
teacheth like him ? " He worketh in and with and 
through all other agencies ; and so if we put together 
all that we have enumerated, the mere la*pse of time 
itself, the opportunity which it furnishes for mental 



s 



248 THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 

growth, for diversified experience, and for that teach- 
ing of the Spirit which not only utilizes all of these, 
but is directly communicated to the believing soul, we 
may clearly comprehend how true it may become that 
what one of God's children knows not now, he shall 
understand hereafter. 

But now, in the second place, let us look at the 
area which this principle covers. It applies first to 
the mysteries that are found in Scripture. We need 
not be surprised to find mysteries in God's revelation 
to men ; for men are finite. They cannot understand 
the infinite, and therefore their knowledge, whether 
communicated by God or not, must be imperfect. But 
imperfect knowledge is just another name for mystery, 
and so we must expect to find that in connection with 
every communication made by God to men. If we do 
not find it, indeed, we may fairly conclude that the 
communication has not come from God at all. But as 
the years revolve, the mystery may diminish, and may 
finally disappear, or at least cease to trouble us. Thus 
we all know that the things which disturbed us many 
years ago in our Bible study are not the same as 
those by which we are now perplexed. The old ones 
have been either solved or shelved, and others, about 
much higher and more momentous things, have taken 
their places, to be in their turn pushed aside by myste- 
ries arising out of or connected with still higher 
themes. This explains why it is that elderly Chris- 
tians find it so hard to put themselves back to the 
standpoint occupied by young people, or to speak words 
of wisdom to them about their difficulties. It is so 
long since they felt the same perplexities, that they 
have forgotten how they extricated themselves from 



THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 249 



them ; and because they are no longer perplexities to 
themselves, they cannot understand how they should 
disturb any one else. But the principle beneath my 
text might teach them to advise their distressed friends 
to let the subject that is disturbing them alone for a 
time, and turn their minds into another channel, in the 
hope that what they know not now, they shall under- 
stand hereafter. 

Thus, to take the subject of inspiration, which is 
disturbing so many minds at present, it may be per- 
tinent to say that it is not the earliest question that 
should be taken up by the Biblical inquirer. In truth, 
it ought rather to be the last result of an inductive 
examination into the nature and origin of the Sacred 
Scriptures. Let the perplexed one take up first the 
Gospel narratives, and after having satisfied himself 
about their authenticity and genuineness, let him seek 
to settle for himself the question, " Who is this J esus 
who is called the Christ ? " If after candid examina- 
tion he is led to the conclusion that he is a man and 
nothing more, then he may turn away and think no 
more either about him or his words or his works. But 
if he is compelled to believe that in Jesus Christ the 
Word, who was God, is incarnate, then faith in him is 
clearly due to him, and obedience to him ought to 
be absolute and implicit. Let him thus believe him 
and obey him for a time, and then he will find his 
former difficulties no longer pressing upon him. He 
may not be able — judging from my own experience, he 
will not be able — to formulate in words a theory of 
inspiration which will fit all the facts, or which will be 
satisfactory either to himself or others; but he will 
practically regard the Holy Scriptures as his standard 
of faith and conduct. He will believe what Christ says 



250 THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 

just because it is he who says it. He will obey what 
he commands just because it is he who commands it; 
and that will keep him so busy, and make him so 
happy, that he will neither have the time nor the heart 
to occupy himself with that which has now become 
to him a question of subordinate interest. 

So it will be also with other subjects, such as election, 
foreordination, and the like. The key for the unlocking 
of mystery is put into the hand of obedience. There is 
a sense in which it is true that we must know in order 
to do; but there is another, in which it is also true 
that we must do in order to know, and here lies the 
comfort in the Saviour's words, "If any man be willing 
to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether 
it be of God." So let the perplexed among us turn 
away meanwhile from the obscure, the difficult, the 
mysterious, and study Christ, and by following that 
course they will discover that what they know not now 
they will understand by and by. 

But the principle in the text applies also to the dis- 
pensations of God's providence. There are great anom- 
alies constantly occurring in the world around us. We 
must believe in the all-controlling providence of God. 
The only alternatives to that are that things happen by 
chance, or that they have been fixed by hard, imper- 
sonal, remorseless fate. But a rational being cannot 
rest in either of these for a moment. Still if all things 
are working out the will of God, and if God is wise 
and just and good, how comes it that he allows such 
things to happen as we read of daily in our newspapers ? 
That is an anomaly, a seeming inconsistency, a mys- 
tery. We cannot explain it, but neither must we allow 
it to paralyze our piety. It is a case for the applica- 
tion of the principle before us. We can let it alone, 



THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 251 



and wait and trust. God's ways are past finding out; 
but God himself we know, for he has revealed himself 
to us at and through the cross of Calvary, and we have 
such confidence in his love that we can trust it, even 
when we cannot see how it can be consistent with much 
that is happening daily in the administration of his 
providence. 

But most of us, probably, are more distressed by 
God's dealings with ourselves than with the anoma- 
lies occurring in his government of the world at large. 
Why does he send affliction upon us ? And how 
comes it that the affliction which he sends takes the 
form that it assumes ? Have we not all at times 
been distressed with questions like these; and was 
our distress not caused because we had forgotten the 
words of this morning's text ? The author of the Epis- 
tle to the Hebrews has said, "No chastening for the 
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Neverthe- 
less afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of right- 
eousness unto them which are exercised thereby. " Now 
the trouble has been that we overlooked that important 
word "afterward." We wanted to have the whole 
explanation at the time when the chastening was upon 
us, and because we could not get that then we aggra- 
vated our trial by our own futile attempts to get a solu- 
tion for ourselves. But when we have been content 
to wait, the peaceable fruit has rewarded our patience. 
It is better, therefore, to bow before God and bear the 
rod, while we pray for the working out of his purpose 
in us, than it is to chafe and fret our spirits in the 
impotent attempt to find out that which in his own 
time he will reveal to us, without any effort of our 
own at all. There are few of us past middle age who 
cannot attest the truth of my declaration when I say 



V 1 

252 THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 

that in the " afterward" of our trials we have had their 
interpretation. I think at this moment of a specially 
heavy affliction, through which now seven and twenty 
years ago God made me to pass, when in the short 
space of ten days he took two of my children from my 
arms ; and as I look back upon it now, I am at no loss 
to understand it, for it put sympathy into my heart, 
and pathos into my speech, so that 1 might be the better 
able to succor and to sympathize with all who might be 
similarly afflicted. I knew not then, I dreamed not 
then, of the work that was in store for me here so far 
away from my native land; but often since has God 
given me to see that through that dark discipline of 
trial he was fitting me for this ministry and service. 
I am sure that many of you could give similar testi- 
mony concerning your own trials, so true it is that what 
we did not know at the time we have come to under- 
stand very thoroughly afterwards. 

But now, finally, what may we learn from this sub- 
ject in our daily life ? It may well, in the first place, 
teach us patience. It repeats to us the caution of Paul, 
that we " should judge nothing before the time. " It bids 
us wait God's time, and tells us that whatever it may 
be that is disturbing us, — 

" God is his own interpreter, 
And he will make it plain." 

And so it encourages us to combine hope with our 
patience. It puts the light ahead, and tells us to steer 
by that. In this way it makes the patience easier. 
There is an explanation coining, therefore we may be 
the better upheld as we wait for it. " For if we hope 
for that we see not then do we with patience wait for 



THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 253 

it. " Keep the hope steady, and the patience will not 
fail; but if you let go the hope, the patience will go 
too. Therefore though the interpretation of a trial 
may be long in coming, do not sink into fretfulness, 
far less into despair. u Though it tarry, wait for it. 
It will surely come ; it will not tarry ; " and when it 
comes, you will find that it has been worth waiting 
for. 

Throughout my discourse, as you must have per- 
ceived, I have dealt with the text as relating to the 
hereafter of time. 

But true as it is in that, its original application, it 
is even more so of the hereafter of eternity. The 
dark things which time has left unillumined will be 
brightened in eternity. What troubled us here will 
cease to perplex us there; for we shall have no sin 
dwelling in us to dim our spiritual vision, and we 
shall be face to face with God, "in whose light we 
shall see light. " I say not, indeed, that there shall be 
no mysteries there, for that would be a mistake. Mys- 
tery, as we have seen, is imperfect knowledge, and 
as man is finite his knowledge must be always imper- 
fect, and so there must always be some mysteries left 
for his solution. There will always be in heaven the 
eternal approximation of the finite toward the infinite ; 
but the finite will never attain to the full knowledge 
possessed by the infinite, and in the unbridged gulf 
between them mystery will ever dwell. But then in 
heaven no perplexity will be felt regarding it, for 
there our confidence in God will be perfect, and we 
shall be content to let him interpret himself to us, as 
he will and when he will; and that constantly increas- 
ing revelation of himself and interpretation of himself 
to us will constitute one of the great charms of the 



254 THE INTERPRETING INFLUENCE OF TIME. 



celestial life, and keep it from being the dull monoto- 
nous thing which many seem to think it is to be. Why 
should we not seek to have here and now this growing 
knowledge of God and of his ways, this absolute trust 
in his perfect wisdom and love, this patient waiting 
for the unfolding of his purpose, and so have therein 
heaven itself begun on earth ? 



XX. 



PRAISE. 

Sing praises to God, sing praises ! sing praises unto our 
King, sing praises ! — Psalms xlvii. 6. 

The psalm from which these words are taken was 
evidently composed for the celebration of a victory 
gained by God's ancient people, through his gracious 
assistance over some confederated nations. In this 
way God had, as it were, chosen Israel's inheritance 
anew, and proved himself to be king over all the earth. 
Hence all nations, as well as that of Israel, are called 
to praise Jehovah, who had in this signal manner 
displayed his lordship over them. The ode had its 
origin, doubtless, in some historical occasion, though 
it is now impossible fully to determine what that occa- 
sion was; but we may describe its general purport 
in the words of Perowne, who calls it "a hymn of 
triumph, in which the singer calls upon all nations 
of the earth to praise Jehovah as their king, and 
joyfully anticipates the time when they shall all be- 
come one body with the people of the God of Abra- 
ham," and adds, "In this sense the psalm may be 
called Messianic, a prophecy of the final triumph of 
God's kingdom on the earth." This view is corrobo- 
rated and confirmed by the peculiar structure of verse 
fifth, — " God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with 
the sound of a trumpet, " ■ — which, whatever may have 



256 



PRAISE. 



suggested- it at first, it is now impossible for us to read 
without thinking of the ascension of Christ into glory 
after his triumph over his and our enemies in his resur- 
rection from the dead. Accordingly, it is by most 
commentators interpreted as having a prophetic refer- 
ence to that great event; and so the command "sing 
praises," which immediately follows, is a call to offer 
praise to him who died for our sins, rose again for our 
justification, and is now " exalted at the right hand of 
God, a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto 
Israel, and the remission of sins." 

Accordingly, it is not out of place to turn your thoughts 
on this communion morning to the uses of praise. No 
doubt the special object of the Lord's supper is to show 
forth the death of Christ; but that death would have 
been without meaning and value to us if it had not 
been followed by his resurrection and ascension, and 
therefore we cannot commemorate it either fully or 
intelligently without taking into account the light 
which they have shed upon it, and we cannot do that 
without offering praise to him as our risen and reigning 
Lord. Nor can we forget that part of the exercises at 
the first observance of the Lord's supper, a part, too, 
which we ourselves sacredly follow on every occasion 
when we gather round the table of the Lord, was the 
singing of a hymn. It is every way appropriate, there- 
fore, that we should here and now meditate a little on 
the great objects which are to be gained by the singing 
of praises to Jehovah- Jesus, our Redeeming God. 

Praise may be specifically defined as the expression 
of gratitude to God, more particularly for his grace in 
redemption, in words of rhythmic cadence and poetic 
fervor sung to appropriate music. The great prerequi- 
site in offering it is sincerity. First and before all 



PRAISE. 



257 



things else we must have the melody of the heart. We 
must ourselves have experienced the deliverance which 
we celebrate; we must understand the words which 
we use, and feel the gratitude which we sing. If we 
do that, then we shall give to God of our best, and the 
music will be only the fitting vocal expression of our 
deepest emotions. But presuming that all these things 
are secured, let me proceed to enumerate to you a few 
of the results which may ordinarily be expected from 
our singing of praises to our God and Father in Christ 
Jesus. 

First of all, then, we ought to sing praises, because 
to do so honors God. The richest spoils that the 
Israelites brought with them out of Egypt were poetry 
and music; and the first use to which they turned 
them, after their emancipation, was to glorify him who 
had not only brought them safely through the Red Sea, 
but had also submerged their enemies beneath its 
refluent waves. Praise was born that day when Moses 
sang his grateful song, and was answered in responsive 
chorus by Miriam and her sisters. That was the 
national anthem of the Jews, and the prelude and 
prophecy of the song of the redeemed both on earth and 
in heaven. It told of deliverance, and glorified the 
deliverer. So let us " shew forth the praises of him 
who hath called us from darkness into his marvellous 
light," and when we receive any special blessing from 
his hand, let us signalize it by special praise. The 
hymnology of the Church is the register of its spiritual 
life. As that rises it rises, and every time of peculiar 
revival has been marked by some great outburst of 
praise. This is as true of the individual as it is of the 
Church. He who has obtained the great salvation, or 

17 



258 



PRAISE. 



who has just been favored with some fresh baptism of 
the Holy Spirit, cannot refrain from praising God. He 
feels that if he " should hold his peace the stones would 
immediately cry out ; " and so to relieve himself of his 
pent-up feelings, and more especially to give glory to 
God, he calls upon his soul to bless and magnify the name 
of him who hath crowned him with his tender mercies 
and loving kindness. For the honor of God, then, and 
to show forth his glory, let us learn to sing praises. 

Secondly, let us sing praises, for to do so gives relief 
to the soul in sadness. How many illustrations we have 
of this effect of song in the Psalms of David ! Some 
of the sweetest of these lyrics were born in sadness. 
They begin in a minor key with a plaintive miserere, 
and rise step by step up a ladder of music to ecstatic 
hallelujah. In the closing strophe the faith which 
prompted the song at the first comes forth like a daisy 
emerging at daylight from the grass, and opening its 
petals to the morning sun. The night had made it 
bend its head, and covered it with dew-drops, and now, 
as it lifts itself to greet the dawn, the tears of the 
darkness become the diamonds that encircle its crimson- 
pointed coronet. And the experience of David in writ- 
ing and singing such songs at first has often been 
repeated in those who have used them. As the in- 
scriptions painfully graven by the God-fearing prisoner 
on the walls of his chamber in the Tower of London 
remained to cheer and comfort and direct the sad ones 
who were incarcerated there in later days, so these 
psalms have been a comfort to God's people in every 
age since they were chanted first. They have been the 
means of inspiring many a despairing one with hope, 
and many a timid one with courage. They have been 
the stairway up which many a forlorn one has climbed 



PRAISE. 



259 



from the depths of sadness to the heights of spirit- 
ual joy in communion with God. Christian sufferers 
everywhere in times of danger and crisis have turned 
to them without disappointment, for the steps which 
David hewed for himself up the steep hillside of life 
remain unto this present, and are as serviceable for us 
as for him. Other portions of Scripture bid us trust in 
the Lord forever ; but these odes show us how to trust, 
and when we remember that he who sang, " Cast thy 
burden on the Lord and he shall sustain thee, " was at 
the very moment fleeing, homeless, crownless, all but 
friendless, from the violence of a son who had become 
a traitor and a rebel, we can well understand that the 
cable which could bear so great a strain with him, will 
hold with us in every uttermost emergency. When 
you are in sorrow or despondency, therefore, do not 
cease your singing ; for if you continue your praise, he 
to whom you offer it will ere long enable you to say, 
" Why art thou cast down, my soul, and why art thou 
disquieted within me ? hope thou in God, for I shall 
yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance 
and my God. " 

Thirdly, sing praises, for to do so braces the soul for 
conflict. The Lord Jesus himself, in whom the prince 
of this world had nothing, sang a hymn just before he 
went forth to his final duel with the arch enemy and 
his dreadful anguish in Gethsemane. He knew what 
was before him, and he went forth to meet it singing 
praises. So in later days those who have been called 
to resist unto blood striving against sin, have braced 
themselves for the encounter by the music of a psalm. 
Luther knew this power of sacred song, for in his times 
of sorest darkness he was accustomed to say, " Come 
and let us sing the forty-sixth psalm ; " and the battle 



260 PRAISE. 

hymn of Gustavus Adolphus was as potent a factor in 
securing the final triumph of Protestantism as the 
" Feste Burg " of the Reformer was in rousing enthusi- 
asm at its beginning. The Covenanters of Scotland 
advanced to* the charge at Drumclog under the inspira- 
tion of praise, for — 

" The glens and the rocks with the wild music rung, 
As they chanted a psalm and rushed on." 

There was no withstanding an energy so heaven-derived 
as that, and when we shall meet our spiritual foes in 
the same fashion we, too, shall be "more than con- 
querors." Every war has its own watchword of song; 
and many are the stories told by those who fought on 
either side in our great civil strife of the effects 
produced upon them by the striking up of a patriotic 
song which would be taken up by regiment after regi- 
ment, all along the lines, until their hearts thrilled 
with the enthusiasm out of which heroism was born. 
But the same thing is true in our holy war with sin, 
Satan, the world, and the flesh ; and we would win more 
victories over the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, 
and the pride of life, if we fought more frequently 
with a song for a weapon. 

Fourthly, sing praises, for to do so robs temptation 
of its power. In eastern lands men charm serpents 
and make them harmless by the influence of music, 
and one of the best ways to foil Satan is with a sacred 
song. As the harp of David soothed the soul of Saul, 
so that the evil spirit departed from him, and as the 
minstrel's music prepared the spirit of Elisha for 
receiving the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, so we 
may at once drive away evil, and attract holiness by 
the use of praise. You remember Trench's beautiful 



praise: 



261 



sonnet on the contrast between Ulysses and Orpheus, in 
the devices which they severally employed to neutralize 
the power of the Sirens' charm, but for the sake of the 
lesson which it teaches I will repeat it here, — 

" Ulysses, sailing by the Sirens' isle, 

Sealed first his comrades' ears, then bade them fast 

Bind him with many a fetter to the mast, 

Lest those sweet voices should their souls beguile, 

And to their ruin flatter them the while 

Their homeward bark was sailing swiftly past ; 

And thus the peril they behind them cast, 

Though chased by these weird voices many a mile. 

But yet a nobler cunning Orpheus used: 

No fetter he put on, nor stopped his ear, 

But ever, as he passed, sang high and clear 

The blisses of the gods, their holy joys, 

And with diviner melody confused 

And marred earth's sweetest music to a noise." 

He who has Jesus in his soul has a greater than 
Orpheus on board with him, and by giving expressive 
utterance in song to the happiness which Christ im- 
parts, or better yet, by allowing the Christ that is in 
him to sing out his own song of purity and peace and 
joy, he will so fill his ear with heaven's own music 
as to make himself indifferent to the voice of all 
earthly charmers, charm they ever so wisely. 

Fifthly, sing praises, for to do so publishes the 
Gospel to others. Many who have fled from a sermon 
have been caught by a song. The little child just come 
home from the Sunday-school, and singing the hymn 
which she has learned there, has not unfrequently been 
the means of the conversion of an ungodly father or a 
graceless mother. And sometimes the nail driven by 
the preacher has been riveted by the hymn that followed 
the discourse. I have read of one, who, going out of 



262 PRAISE. 

curiosity to worship with some Methodists in an Irish 
barn, felt his conscience sorely disturbed by the minis- 
ter's appeals, yet he was able to resist all these; but 
when at the close of the sermon the whole congrega- 
tion, at the call of the preacher, took up and sang 
through the hymn beginning, " Come ye sinners, poor 
and wretched," that, by the grace of God's Spirit, broke 
him down. Sing on, then, the old, old story of Jesus 
and his love, and by the song you will become a 
preacher as you virtually say, " All that fear God, 
come, hear, I'll tell what he did for my soul." 

Sing praises, finally, because to do so will prepare 
you for heaven. There preaching will be unnecessary 
in the presence of him who is the living truth ; there 
sacraments will have no place, for the glorious realities 
of which these were the symbols will be fully enjoyed ; 
there prayer will be unnecessary, for in the presence 
of the Lord there will be nothing left for us to desire, 
since we shall have fulness of joy and pleasures for 
evermore. But there praise will be unceasing and 
ecstatic ; so that is the one ordinance that is common 
both to earth and heaven, and therefore in that we have 
the best foretaste and preparative for heaven. Let 
us, therefore, value it highly, and engage in it often, so 
that we may be at length the fitter for joining in what 
Milton calls "that undisturbed song of pure concent, 
aye sung before the sapphire throne, with saintly shout 
and solemn jubilee " : " Worthy is the Lamb that was 
slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and 
strength and honour and glory and blessing. " " Sing 
praises to God, sing praises ! Sing praises unto our 
King ! Sing praises ! " 



XXI. 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN 
TESTIMONY. 

We cannot but speak. — Acts iv. 20. 

The words are those of Peter and John before the 
Jewish Council when they were examined concerning 
the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the 
Temple. The members of the Sanhedrim, unable to 
deny that a notable miracle had been performed by the 
Apostles in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, came 
to the conclusion to dismiss them from the bar; but 
with the view of preventing the diffusion of the Gospel 
which the prisoners proclaimed, they sought to exact 
from them a promise that they would not " speak at all 
nor teach in the name of Jesus," and it was in answer 
to that demand that they said, "Whether it be right 
in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto 
God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak the things 
which we have seen and heard. " It was a right ringing 
reply, carrying within it an assertion of the doctrine of 
liberty of conscience and of the right of free speech, 
which has been the watchword in many a memorable 
struggle since their days. 

But though there is much in that aspect of the words 
to stir our pulses, and although it needs an effort on 
our part to forbear from entering on an enumeration of 
the historic triumphs which these principles have won 



264 IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 

through the courage of Christian confessors and mar- 
tyrs during the past eighteen centuries, my purpose 
this morning is to confine your attention to the four 
words, "We cannot but speak," which I have read as 
my text. They are a declaration of the fact that the 
two Apostles could not restrain themselves from the 
utterance of their testimony to the sayings and doings 
of the Lord Jesus. Necessity was laid upon them to 
speak these things. But that necessity was not an 
external compulsion. Nobody forced them to speak. 
They were not terrified into their utterances, still 
less were they bribed by any material considerations 
to make their statement ; but they were moved by an 
inner and irresistible impulse. They could not hold 
back that which in them was forcing itself into expres- 
sion. The utterance of the things which they had seen 
and heard in their intercourse with the Lord was in 
their hearts, as the word of God was in Jeremiah's, 
" as a burning fire shut up in their bones, and they were 
weary with forbearing, and they could not stay." 
Like Paul in Corinth, "they were pressed in spirit." 
There was that in them that would not allow them to 
keep silence. For their own relief, as well as for the 
good of others, they had to speak. Now it is of this 
phase of experience that I am at present to treat, — the 
irrepressible in Christian testimony. 

And first of all let us seek for an explanation of this 
irresistible impulse. We are familiar with it in other 
departments, and our knowledge of it there may help 
us to the analysis of it here. Sometimes this con- 
straining impulse to a certain course is to be traced to 
that subtle thing which we call genius, so that in spite 
of all obstacles that may be in his way the man at 



IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 265 



length finds vent for what is in him, and rises to 
eminence. It is thus, for example, with the poet and 
the artist, the musician and the engineer. Pope tells 
us that as a child, — 

" He lisped in numbers, for the numbers came; 

and these early effusions were the indications of what 
he was afterwards to become. No matter though John 
Leech's father designed him for a medical man, and 
had him actuall}> r started in the way to that profession; 
his heart was in those sketches, the earliest of which 
made Flaxman say of him when he was only six years 
old, " That boy will be an artist. He will be nothing 
less or else." You might have put Mozart or Men- 
delssohn anywhere you chose ; but you could not have 
prevented them from becoming musicians. Faraday's 
home-made electrical machine, when he was a book- 
binder's apprentice, was the prophecy of his future 
greatness in electro-magnetism; and the clay engines 
and Liliputian mills set up by the boy George Stephen- 
son in the small streams running into Dewley Bog, 
were the precursors of the snorting locomotive. Thus 
the sphere of each of these men, and of many others 
like them, was determined for them by their innate 
proclivities, and professionally, at least, they might all 
have said that " they could not but " become what they 
ultimately were. 

In others this irrepressibility is the result of emo- 
tion. We are all familiar with the manifestation of 
this quality in the matter of temper, for we speak of 
the explosiveness of anger, and of the loss of self- 
command in consequence of some special provocation. 
But the same thing is seen in the matter of love ; and 
the mother for her child, or the friend for his friend, 



266 IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 

or the philanthropist in the cause of suffering human- 
ity, are all alike self-forgetting, and incapable either 
of being restrained by others, or of holding back them- 
selves when circumstances require their exertion. 

So, too, there is an uncontrollable element in sorrow, 
and the feelings in such cases are so strong that they 
" cannot but " make vent for themselves in tears. 

But strongest of all, perhaps, in their power to com- 
pel their external expression are the dictates of con- 
science, when that faculty is enlightened by the truth 
and quickened by the Spirit of God. Examples of 
this are abundant throughout the history of the Church. 
Each member of " the noble army of martyrs " is a case 
in point, and some have given utterance to their sense 
of the necessity which was thus laid upon them in 
sayings which, like that in my text, " the world will 
not willingly let die." Thus we have such words as 
those of Polycarp, "Eighty and six years have I served 
him, and he has never done me wrong; why should I 
deny him now ? " Those of Luther, " Here I stand. I 
can do no otherwise. Retract I cannot, God help me. 
Amen. " Those of Knox, " I am in the place where I 
am demanded of my conscience to speak the truth, and 
therefore the truth 1 speak, impugn it whoso list." 
Those of Bunyan, "If I were out of prison to-day I 
would preach the Gospel again to-morrow by the help 
of God ; " and those of the Scottish Covenanter, as he 
lay weltering in his blood, " Though every hair of my 
head were a man, I would die all those deaths for 
Christ and his cause." 

Now when we turn to the case of the Apostles in the 
text, we find at the root of that irrepressible impulse 
to testify to Christ, the greater number of those influ- 
ences which I have specified. There was in them the 



IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 267 



deep, earnest emotion of love to Christ, and love to their 
fellow-men for Christ's sake, the eager desire to secure 
the highest welfare of those with whom the}' came into 
contact, and the loyal response of their consciences to 
the command of their ascended Lord ; and though we 
may not claim for them that which men call genius, yet 
in the operations within them of the Spirit of God, 
we have something which corresponded to it, while it 
vastly transcended it both in the purity of its nature 
and the intensity of its quality. 

Thus the analogy of other men in other departments 
helps us to understand " the cannot but " of Peter and 
John here ; for we discover in the Apostles the combina- 
tion of all these different influences, each of which in 
itself has been mighty enough to produce a similar ef- 
fect in different individuals in the history of the world. 

But now having analyzed and accounted for this 
peculiarity in the two Apostles, we shall find in that 
itself the explanation of many other things about 
them. Thus to begin with, it fully accounts for their 
earnestness. It is the irrepressible in a man that 
makes him earnest. He who speaks because he must 
say something will never rise to any measure of inten- 
sity in his utterance ; but when there is in him some- 
thing which compels itself to be said, then he cannot 
help being in earnest. His words have uo artificiality 
about them. He has not to " get up " any fervor, or 
to strive to become impassioned; for it is the very 
volcanic energy of his conviction and emotion that 
makes him speak at all, and so he forgets himself in 
the object which he has in view. That which bears a 
man irresistibly along with it will generally, when it 
forces itself into expression, sweep others with him. 



/J 

268 IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 

He is seen and known to be "emptied and lost and 
swallowed up " in his purpose ; and so there is as much 
difference between his words and those of the mere 
rhetorician as there is between the mimic thunder of 
the theatre, and the roll of the cloud artillery, as it 
is redoubled and reverberated by the Alpine echoes. 
Nor is this quality in the speech of such a man recog- 
nized only by those who hear his voice. It is charac- 
teristic also of his words when reported and printed. 
We feel as we read the discourses of Peter on Pentecost 
and other days that he spoke just as he felt, and that 
awakens in us kindred emotions even at this distance 
of time. Earnestness was not in them any more than 
it can be in us a thing got up for the occasion, to be 
manifested by rant and roaring; but it was the irre- 
pressible in them making for itself an outlet, — the 
irresistible overflow of the heart into the speech; and 
that, whenever or in whomsoever it is observed, is real 
eloquence. 

But again this quality of irrepressibility in the 
convictions and emotions of the Apostles explains very 
largely their courage. No doubt they had strong faith 
in the presence and grace of their unseen Lord. Like 
Moses, "they endured, as seeing him who is invisible," 
and no explanation of their boldness of speech will be 
satisfactory which leaves that out of the account. 
Continually it was with them as with Elisha. Their 
inner sight perceived that which was unseen by others. 
They knew, they saw, that " the angel of the Lord en- 
campeth round about them that fear him and delivereth 
them ; " and so no matter how numerous their foes might 
be they could say, "They that be with us are more than 
they that be with them. " Whensoever, therefore, they 
were tempted to quail before their adversaries, they 



IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY, 269 



were upheld by that. But my point here is that while 
yielding to this irresistible impulse in them, they had 
for the time being lost all consciousness of self. They 
had not even any such sense of themselves as to be 
afraid for themselves. All they cared for was that 
what in them was forcing its way out should get out 
in appropriate expression. It made no matter, there- 
fore, where they were, whether before councils or kings, 
whether in the presence of men who, like Cornelius and 
his company, were sincere inquirers after truth, or in 
the face of those who were bitterly opposed to Jesus 
and his Gospel, they were equally lifted above all 
trouble for themselves by the fact that the testimony 
that was in them compelled itself to be spoken by 
them. The little child that is full of some new thing 
which he has just experienced, loses consciousness of 
all externals in his eagerness to tell it out; so that in 
spite of the restraints of etiquette, or the frowns of 
parents, or the "hush" of elder people, out it comes, 
often to the confusion and perhaps oftener still to the 
amusement of all around him. The irrepressible within 
him has made him unconscious of all else, and sweeps 
away all barriers. Now similarly it was with the 
Apostles and the great all-important testimony which 
they had to give to their Lord. They felt for them- 
selves what their Master said on a memorable occasion 
about the children in the Temple, that if they should 
hold their peace, "the stones would immediately cry 
out," and so they — 

" Heeded not reviling tones, 

Nor sold their hearts to idle moans; " 

but whether men would hear or whether they would 
forbear, whether they themselves were persecuted or 



270 IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 

whether they were treated with kindness, they "spoke 
the things which they had seen and heard." 

Still again this quality goes far to explain their 
persistence. You cannot easily stop a bird in the 
middle of his song. He pipes to give his gladness 
vent. It is in him, and it will whistle itself to its 
final note. So these Apostles held on in their testi- 
mony to the very last. That which they had to do 
they did, because their hearts, their consciences, their 
perception of the needs of their fellow-men, and the 
promptings of the Holy Spirit, would not suffer them 
to give up. 

So once more it explains their naturalness. You are 
struck as you read their utterances with the total 
absence of the artificial. They were so truly and per- 
fectly themselves that you never think of them, but only 
of their words, while you are reading their sayings. 
They did not by any device thrust themselves upon 
their hearers ; but because in their eagerness to say that 
which they could not keep back, they lost all conscious- 
ness of self, their hearers also forgot their manner 
in their matter. Now when we put all these qualities 
together, their earnestness, courage, persistence, natu- 
ralness, and remember that the Holy Ghost was on 
them and in them and with them, we are at no loss to 
account for their success. Nay more, if we are ever to 
get back Apostolic scenes, in the proclamation of the 
Gospel message, it can only be when, as ministers, as 
missionaries, as teachers, as Christians, we get back 
to this " cannot but " of my text, and seek in connection 
therewith that we may all be endued with "power 
from on high." 

It becomes then a most important question for us ail, 
and especially for those among us who are in any way 



IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY, 271 



engaged in the propagation of the Gospel, for those who 
are in the ministry or who are looking forward to it, 
and for those who are teachers in our Sunday-schools 
or elsewhere, how we are to get to this most desirable 
state of heart and mind, how we are to attain to such 
a disposition concerning the Gospel that we shall feel 
that " we cannot but " speak it in some way or other to 
our fellow-men. In the search for an answer to that 
question I will spend the remaining time at my dis- 
posal in this discourse. 

And first, as an indispensable factor to the produc- 
tion of this irrepressibiiity of which 1 have been 
speaking, I name positive convictions as to the truth 
itself. Uncertainty of belief from the very nature of 
the case produces hesitancy of speech. He who has not 
made up his own mind upon a subject cannot speak to 
any purpose upon that subject. If, therefore, one has 
no positive convictions on any matter, he had better 
keep silence on it until he gets them, and when he 
gets them they will make for themselves a manly and 
earnest utterance. Remember Paul's words, " We 
having the same spirit of faith, according as it is 
written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, we 
also believe and therefore speak." Mark that "there- 
fore." It is the hinge on which all true efficiency of 
utterance must turn. Without personal convictions a 
man's words will be little better than drowsy tinklings ; 
with them they will be like his of whom the poet 
writes, — 

" His words did gather thunder as they ran. 

And as the lightning to the thunder 
Which follows it. riving the spirit of man. 

Making earth wonder, 
So was their meaning to his words." 



272 IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 



I may be quite wrong, but in my view it is just here 
that many preachers fail. They go into the pulpit 
with things about which they are uncertain. They give 
utterance to speculations concerning things in regard 
to which no certitude is possible, or they produce their 
doubts or their disbeliefs ; and so they are neither in 
earnest themselves, nor the means of producing earnest- 
ness in others. As Dr. Johnson said of Priestley, " They 
unsettle everything, and settle nothing." But what is 
needed to-day is the positiveness that springs from per- 
sonal conviction. Nothing can be so effective as that, 
for conviction is infectious, and the very perception of 
it in a man who is known for moral integrity and intel- 
lectual vigor will often of itself produce the result that 
is desired. But doubt leads to dumbness. When the 
conviction drops out of the heart, it is as if the "but" 
fell out of the text, and there remain only the words 
"we cannot speak." 

But in the second place I name as another factor in 
the production of this irrepressibility a vivid realiza- 
tion of the fact that without the Gospel our fellow- 
men are perishing. The danger of her child makes 
a mother forget everything else, in the eagerness of 
her effort for its deliverance; and when we attain 
to such a perception of the danger of sinners as that, 
and have withal such love for them as Christ in- 
spires, we shall not be able to keep from telling them 
the good news of salvation. Look at the difference 
between Paul's letter to the Galatians and his other 
epistles. Mark its passionate energy, its scathing 
invective, its rapid movement, its parental tender- 
ness in some of its appeals, and its condensed power 
throughout. How do we account for all this ? I do 
not say that the great Apostle was not in earnest in 



IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 273 

all his letters ; but I do say that he was particularly 
so in that one, and you will find the explanation in the 
circumstances of those to whom he wrote it. He saw 
that the fundamental principle of the Gospel was endan- 
gered, and that those beloved ones, over whose conver- 
sion he had rejoiced, were imperilled by the influences 
at work among them ; and so he was in haste to rescue 
both. Then that eager, impassioned spirit pushed 
itself irrepressibly into his words, and so "the arrows 
of his thoughts were headed and winged with fire." 
Now it is the same still. The well-known story of the 
dumb boy who gained the power of speech in a moment 
because of his overmastering impulse to warn his 
parent of a tremendous danger that was threatening 
him, may not be true. But even if it be a myth its 
lesson, as such, is an enforcement of that on which I am 
now insisting, for the perception of the fact that with- 
out the Gospel men are under condemnation and in 
danger of being eternally lost, will cast the dumb spirit 
out of the lethargic Christian, and make him " instant 
in season and out of season " in his eff orts to secure 
their salvation. There is no mistaking the earnestness 
of him who rushes from the burning dwelling to cry, 
" Fire ! fire ! " He sees the evil. He knows that if 
means be not promptly taken to extinguish the flames 
the house will be destroyed; and so he does not take it 
leisurely, but he rushes with all his might to open the 
nearest alarm-box he can find. And when the salva- 
tion of souls shall be felt by us to be a matter of as 
urgent and imperative importance, we shall get to the 
" cannot but " of the Apostles in my text. 

But finally, here an equally important factor in the 
production of the irrepressibility is a sense of personal 
responsibility. We find Paul's whole Apostolic and 

18 



274 IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 

missionary life explained in these words of his to the 
Romans, "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the 
barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. " God 
had given him the Gospel in trust for his fellow-men, 
and he was determined not to be a defaulter where such 
interests were at stake. Therefore he was always on 
the outlook for opportunities of paying this debt. He 
was not afraid to speak to men in high position, like 
Sergius Paulus or Festus or Agrippa, and yet he was not 
above seeking the salvation of a runaway slave like 
Onesimus. He was equally earnest in the little prayer- 
meeting of women at Philippi where Lydia was con- 
verted, and on the summit of Mars' hill, where he was 
surrounded by the proud philosophers of Athens. He 
could not rest under this great responsibility, but went 
in obedience to its demands from city to city both in 
Asia and Europe until he reached Rome itself ; and 
even there, when he was an ambassador in bonds, he 
found a congregation large enough for his ambition in 
the soldier who was chained to his right arm. He 
never saw a man without remembering that he had this 
debt to pay to him, and therefore not more for the 
benefit of the stranger than for the relief of his own 
soul he sought his highest welfare. But the same 
responsibility rests upon us. The same Gospel has 
been given to us by God in the same trust, to be kept 
in its purity, and to be proclaimed in its fulness to 
the uttermost parts of the world ; and if in conjunction 
with our firm conviction of its truth, and our clear 
perception of men's need of it, we had also the sense 
of responsibility which made Paul declare himself a 
debtor to all men, we, too, would not be able to keep 
still, but would meet every attempt to silence us with 
the declaration that we cannot but speak that with 



IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 275 



which God has intrusted us for the salvation of 
mankind. 

It may seem to you, however, that in all this I am 
dealing with what concerns the pulpit more than the 
pews; but while I cheerfully acknowledge its direct 
bearing on me, I would not have you miss its indirect 
reference to you. For in the long run the pulpit is 
influenced by the pew as really as the pew is by the 
pulpit, and there are more ways of publishing the 
Gospel than by the living voice. Suppose I were to 
read my text, " we cannot but " give for the propaga- 
tion of the Gospel to our fellow-men at home and abroad, 
would it not be just as true of Peter and John as when 
they said, "we cannot but speak " ? And if it be that 
it is the irrepressible in a man that makes him earnest 
in speech, is it not just as true that it is the irrepres- 
sible in a man that makes him liberal as a giver ? Ah ! 
when we shall see that form of it prevalent among 
Christians, then the treasuries of our missionary socie- 
ties will overflow, and the conversion of the world 
will be close at hand. 

Then again the same principles will be found to 
underlie earnestness in the Christian life. When we 
have clear convictions as to our duty and our obliga- 
tions to Christ, we shall not be able to do otherwise 
than just as he requires. Vacillation in conduct, 
pliancy before temptation, general inconsistency with 
our Christian confession, would be impossible if we felt 
that we could not but follow where Jesus leads. That, 
indeed, was just what Paul meant when he said " the 
love of Christ constraineth us that we should henceforth 
live not unto ourselves, but unto him which died for 
us and rose again." The head and the heart and 
the life would unite in the service of the Saviour if we 



276 IRREPRESSIBLE IN CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY. 



but thoroughly believed his words and heartily loved 
himself. Decision of character is the eloquence of 
life, and that is only thorough in the Christian when, 
like Peter's testimony, it is spontaneous and irrepres- 
sible. That which we have to labor after is not yet 
fully possessed by us ; and fully to possess this decision 
in all cases where principle is involved, we need first 
of all to have Christian principle, and such love to 
Christ as shall impel us to keep it. So that which is 
first an Apostolic example to the preacher becomes in its 
ampler application a noble incentive to the Christian. 
And may God help us all, each in his own department 
of Christian life, to work toward this high attainment 
when the Christianity within us shall be irrepressible, 
and it shall be true of the Christ in our hearts as it 
was of him long ago in the Sidonian village that "he 
could not be hid." Secure that, and then your daily 
life will be a more eloquent presentation of his truth to 
the men around you than was ever made by the grandest 
pulpit orator. 



XXII. 



CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were 
like them that dreamed. — Psalms cxxvi. 1-6. 

The date and primary reference of this beautiful 
Psalm are easily discernible in its contents. It belongs 
very clearly to the era of the Jewish Restoration under 
Ezra, Nehemiah, and their compatriots, and was de- 
signed to encourage the hearts and give direction to 
the prayers of the returned captives in their efforts for 
the reorganization of their national worship. The stand- 
point of the singer is indicated by the petition in the 
fourth verse, " Turn again our captivity, Lord, as the 
streams in the South." Looking around him at the still 
desolate city of Jerusalem ; contemplating the despond- 
ency of those who had been at first so enthusiastic in 
their labors for the rebuilding of the Temple and the 
metropolis; above all, having regard to the vindictive 
and persistent efforts of their enemies to prevent them 
from accomplishing their purpose, — the Psalmist cries, 
" Turn again our captivity, Lord, as the streams in 
the South." As if he had said, " Everything with us at 
present seems to languish and droop. We are like the 
Negeb, or South country, in the summer, when all its 
brooks are dry and everything is withered ; but let thy 
Spirit descend upon us, and thy favor be enjoyed by us, 



278 CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 



and then all will be revived, just as the land is fresh- 
ened and its vegetation quickened by the rains that fill 
the channels of the streams." This prayer may be called 
the centre of the Psalm. All that goes before is de- 
signed to strengthen the faith of the people, so that they 
should be impelled to offer it ; and all that comes after 
is intended to sustain them in the experiences through 
which they might still have to pass before the full an- 
swer to their supplication came. To impel them to offer 
the prayer, the Psalmist goes back to the issuing of the 
decree of Cyrus for the return of the exiles from Babylon 
to Jerusalem. That had so taken them by surprise that 
they could scarcely believe that it was real. Just as 
when Peter was led forth out of prison by the angel, 
" he wist not that it was true which was done by the 
angel, but thought he saw a vision," so these captives 
could not at first realize all that Cyrus had done for 
them ; they were like men in a dream. But when they 
did take it fully in, they saw that their God had neither 
forgotten nor forsaken them, and their joy was so ex- 
uberant that even the heathen, who had aforetime 
taunted them with the powerlessness of their Jehovah 
to help them, were now constrained to say, " Jehovah 
hath done great things for them." But that only moved 
them to respond with deeper fervor, " Yea, the Lord 
hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." 
When, therefore, they thought of all that God had done 
for them at that time, they might well be encouraged to 
cry in their new need, " Turn again our captivity, Lord, 
as the streams in the South country." 

But though an answer of blessing would surely come 
to such a petition, it might be for a time delayed. For 
a season yet they might be compelled to contend with 
Samaritan antagonists. Sanballats and Tobiahs and 



CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 279 

Gashmus might continue to trouble them ; and many 
a time they might be saddened , even to tears, as they 
saw " the walls of their city broken down, and the gates 
thereof burned with fire." But the work must not stand 
still for these things. " Weeping must not hinder sow- 
ing;" and they must labor on, taking this for their 
support, " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He 
that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall 
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
with him." 

Such, as it appears to me, is the scope of this psalm 
in its primary application. But to-day I mean to take 
it as suggestive, first, of the characteristics of a revived 
church ; second, of the trials which a revived church 
must expect to bear ; and, third, of the comforts by 
which it is sustained under these trials. 

Let us look, then, first, at the characteristics of a 
revived church as they are here suggested ; and among 
these I name, first, its clear and distinct recognition of 
the fact that its revival has been the work of God him- 
self. The restoration of the Jews to their own land 
had been brought about through the instrumentality of 
Cyrus, but in all the hymns of praise to which it gave 
birth nothing is said of the Persian monarch. That 
was not because the people were not fully sensible of 
his kindness, but because they looked above the earthly 
agent to their covenant God, in whose hand is the 
king's heart. Now, in the same way, wherever under 
the Gospel dispensation a revival is genuine, those who 
have been blessed by it give all the praise to God, and 
affirm that he hath turned back their captivity, and done 
great things for them. The preacher who has been the 
instrument in the revival is esteemed very highly in 



280 CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 



love for his work's sake, but the whole praise is given 
to God. The revived ones do not regard themselves as 
the converts of any man, however great may be his gifts, 
but as the converts of the Holy Spirit ; and whenever that 
disposition disappears, and they begin to give pre-emi- 
nence to men, — some saying, " We are of Paul," others, 
" We are of Apollos," and others, " We are of Cephas," 
— the blessing has largely died out, and bitterness and 
contention are beginning to take its place. 

Now, all this is fraught with richest instruction to us, 
for it bids us when we seek revival to look away from 
instrumentalities to Him who alone can make any instru- 
mentality efficacious. It bids us trust not in the coming 
of any man among us, but rather in the manifestation of 
God's power in the midst of us, in any manner and in 
connection with any agency which he may be pleased to 
employ. We are in no right spirit for the reception of 
revival if we connect our request for it with the condi- 
tion that it is to come through the labors of a certain 
man, or in any other specified way ; and if after a season 
of what seems to have been revival we give the honor to 
any earthly agent, we just so far discredit the work, and 
bring in envy and alienation where love and brother- 
hood should reign. Let the Lord make bare his arm as 
he pleaseth ; and no matter though the blessing come 
through a Cyrus, or a Darius, or an Artaxerxes, let us 
give God the praise. If it be a true work of grace it 
will lead us to ascribe it all to him ; but if the name of 
any man be uppermost in it, then let us take care lest, 
after all, it be only a man's work, and lest the frailty of 
its origin should be revealed in the brevity of its results. 

But a second characteristic of a revived church, as 
here suggested, is joy. " Then," says this Psalmist, 
" was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue 



CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 281 



with singing ; " and again, " The Lord hath done great 
things for us, whereof we are glad" Indeed, so great 
was the joy of the returned captives that it attracted the 
attention of the heathen. Now, in the same way, when 
a soul is revived, or when a community is spiritually 
blessed, there is the utmost gladness. You remember 
that after Philip had baptized the Ethiopian, the new 
convert " went on his way rejoicing ; " and after the 
same Evangelist had preached in Samaria, and had led 
multitudes to the Lord, we are told that " there was 
great joy in that city." So when God visits a church 
with a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit we have always 
a new illustration of the truth that u the fruit of the 
Spirit is joy." We cannot receive favor from God's 
hand without being gladdened by the gift. New con- 
verts have the joy of pardon, reconciliation, and regen- 
eration ; and older Christians are delighted with the 
fresh experience of those who have recently been led to 
Christ. All this leads to a general consecration of the 
members to the Redeemer, and that elevates the plat- 
form of character among them to such a degree that 
men outside begin to take knowledge of them " that 
they have been with Jesus." Their very joy, from its 
peculiarity and its exuberance, attracts the attention of 
the worldling. 

Now, this is a matter which, I think, is too seldom 
thought of by modern believers. We have not been so 
careful as we ought to have been to maintain a glad- 
some piety, and so we have given some little occasion 
for the calumny that the Gospel tends to moro'seness 
and despondency. But if we have failed in this respect, 
may it not have been because of the low state of real 
piety in our own hearts ? When the Church has little 
joy, when its gladsomeness ceases to be observed by 



282 CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 



those outside, are not these symptoms that it needs 
revival ? " Then were the disciples glad when they 
saw the Lord." So writes the fourth Evangelist of the 
meeting between Jesus and his followers on the evening 
of the Resurrection Day. But always when the Lord 
visits a church in the power of his resurrection, to 
quicken and revive its members, the same thing may 
be said. If, therefore, we are lacking in joy; if our 
praises falter ; if, as the hymn has it, " hosdnnas lan- 
guish on our tongues and our devotion dies ; " if there 
be among us little of that spirit of glad enthusiasm 
which is quick to accept responsibilities, and eager to 
carry on new enterprises for the Lord, — then we need 
revival. Nothing but that will give us gladness. We 
may get up any number of entertainments ; we may 
have all manner of social gatherings ; we may have 
festivals of this sort and of that ; but all these shall be 
only so many signals of distress, betokening the absence 
of that of which they would fain be taken for the ex- 
pression. All these will be powerless in themselves to 
remove the evil. All these will but mock the malady 
which they are used to cure. The true and only specific 
for the removal of sadness is the presence of the Lord 
among us. Let us be but thoroughly revived by his 
Spirit, and we shall have joy enough in ourselves to lift 
us above the temptation to turn the church into a place 
of amusement, and to make us independent of the pleas- 
ures of the world. 

But we have brought before us in this psalm, also, 
some of the trials which a revived church must expect. 
After the Jews returned into their own land, and began 
the work of rebuilding their metropolis, they were 
assailed by many adversaries ; to such an extent, indeed, 



CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 283 

were they hindered by their enemies, that many years 
elapsed before their work was accomplished. One won- 
ders if, sometimes, they were not tempted to say, " Did 
God indeed intend that we should come back ? If he 
did why does he permit us to be thus opposed ? " But 
whether they were thus tempted or not, we know that 
their experience is not at all singular. You remember 
how the disciples sent off by their Master to cross the 
Lake of Galilee were immediately required to contend 
with the waves raised by a storm of contrary wind. You 
cannot have forgotten either, how after Paul had gone 
to Macedonia, in response to the vision of the man who 
cried, " Come over into Macedonia and help us," he 
encountered antagonism wherever he went, — was shame- 
fully entreated at Philippi, was hunted out of Thes- 
salonica, was smuggled by night out of Berea, was 
laughed to scorn at Athens, and was dragged before the 
judgment-seat of Gallio at Corinth. That seemed a 
strange welcome for Greece to give to the Apostle ; 
that looked almost as if the vision which he had seen 
at Troas had been a delusion. But in reality, the 
whole experience was only an illustration of the 
common law that revived effort in the cause of Grod 
quickens the opposition of Jiis enemies, and it was 
permitted to come upon Paul just to harden him for 
new suffering in his Master's service. Now it was not 
different with the returned captives to whom we have 
so often referred. If they had been content to let Jeru- 
salem lie waste, the surrounding tribes would have let 
them alone. But because they set themselves earnestly 
to reorganize the worship of Jehovah there, and to 
refortify the city itself, they were hindered and attacked. 
And in like manner, when a revived church puts forth 
its new strength in testifying to Christ ; when it is fear- 



284 CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 

less alike in its advocacy of truth and in its assaults 
on error ; when it lifts up its voice like a trumpet to 
show the men of the world their iniquity ; when it pushes 
on its missionary activity into the streets and lanes of 
the city so effectively as to dry up the gains of those who 
live on the vices of the people, and to awaken the 
enmity of Demetrius and the craftsmen, — then it will be ■ 
assailed. Efforts will be made on every side to hinder 
its usefulness. Slanderous stories, for which no better 
authority can be given than this, " It is reported among 
the heathen, and Gashmu saith it," will be circulated 
to the defamation of its members, and possibly a new 
enthusiasm for some one of the world's Dianas may be 
made the excuse for a crusade upon them. 

But all this when it comes is only the world's way of 
bearing its testimony to the genuineness of the church's 
life. If that was a make-believe, the world would let the 
church alone ; but because it is real, the world is bitter. 
In the wake of every genuine revival, therefore, you 
may look for some kind of assault from the enemies of 
the Cross ; and if that do not come, you may conclude 
that the revival has not gone so very deep after all. 
Indeed, it may be accepted as a general principle that 
the church which stands well with the world has no 
great spirituality in it. You remember the words of 
the Lord Jesus, how he said, " Woe unto you when all 
men speak well of you," and you cannot have forgotten 
the unqualified assertion of his Apostle, " The friendship 
of the world is enmity with God." Now it is in perfect 
keeping with these utterances to affirm, that when the 
ungodly see in the church the spirit of compromise, 
they will speak well of it ; but when they are confronted 
with its emphatic and unqualified testimony against 
respectable wickedness, then they will begin to condemn 



CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 285 



it, and will oppose its efforts by every means on which 
they can lay their hands. When a church is afraid of 
its reputation with the outside world, its aggressive 
force has gone. It is then in captivity as really as 
were the Jews in Babylon. But when its members 
become unbending in their loyalty to Christ and un- 
wearied in their efforts for the conversion of their 
fellow-men, then they will not care for what men say 
concerning them, or they will prefer the frown of the 
world to its favor, for they see in that the seal of the 
divine approval. How is it, my brethren, in this respect 
with us ? Is not the present tendency among us in the 
direction of the cultivation of the good opinion of the 
world ? Are we not too often tempted to meet it a good 
deal more than half-way ? Do we not weaken the em- 
phasis of our protest against its wickedness and lessen 
the weight of our condemnation of its iniquities, because 
we fear its opposition ? How few among us would care, 
for example, to be put in the pillory of an unscrupulous 
press for our adherence to that which we believe to be 
right, and how weak one's condemnation of prevailing 
evils becomes when one of the evil-doers has it in his 
power seriously to injure our business interests ! Ah ! 
are not all these signs that we need revival, genuine 
heaven -born revival, to break up our friendship with 
the world and give us the blessing of its antagonism ? At 
all events, this is true, — that if we were thoroughly re- 
vived by the Spirit of God we would be more clearly 
seen to belong to the Lord Jesus, and would know 
something more by experience about the opposition of 
the world. 

But now, in the third place, let us look at the supports 
of the revived church under these trials, as these are 



286 CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 



suggested in this psalm. The first of these is prayer ; 
for, as we see, the inspired singer cries aloud, " Turn 
again our captivity, Lord, as the streams in the 
South country," and the reader of the history of the 
period knows full well how much the spirits of both 
Ezra and Nehemiah were upheld by their communion 
with their God. They believed that He who had opened 
their way back to Jerusalem and had moved them to go 
thither, had a work for them to do there, and would 
sustain them until it was accomplished. They were 
confident that He who had broken the power of Babylon 
and turned the heart of Cyrus, was able also to preserve 
them from the enmity of the Samaritans and the plots 
of Sanballat, and so they called on Him in prayer. 

And in the same way, the mightiest means of defence 
which the church can employ is prayer. It lies back 
behind all other efforts which the people of God should 
make against their adversaries. It will keep their as- 
saults from doing harm ; for just as a wet hand can with 
impunity lay hold of a bar of iron that is heated to the 
white, so no evil can injure the church that is bedewed 
with the spirit of prayer. But besides all that, it will 
guide to the use of those means which shall most surely 
checkmate and defeat the plottings of her enemies. 
Who can read the life of Nehemiah without being con- 
vinced of that ? And in the record of the labors of 
such a man as Felix Neff, the pastor of the Ban de la 
Roche, one can see how his courage and his inventive- 
ness, his wisdom and his readiness in resource, were all 
stimulated and directed by his constant waiting upon 
God in prayer. So amid all the attacks of infidelity, 
and all the slanders of calumny, and all the sneers of 
ridicule, the church's first and strongest defence is 
prayer. In that all true revival begins, to that all true 



CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL 287 



revival tends ; and the church is safe in the proportion 
in which constant and confidential fellowship with God 
is maintained by its members. 

But the other support of the church under the assaults 
of its enemies is in the assurance that no work for God 
is ever without fruit. This is the meaning of the beau- 
tiful figure with which the psalm concludes. That 
figure is so simple as to need little or no explanation, 
but it may thus be interpreted. " The Hebrew church is 
compared to a farmer with a basket of seed in spring ; 
the soil is hard and firm, and most unsuitable for the 
reception of the seed, for no rains have descended to 
furnish a moist bed. He sows with tears, with grief 
and anxiety, for so dreary is the prospect of harvest that 
sowing seems a waste of labor, a kind of tempting of 
Providence. Would it not be wiser not to sow at all ? 
But he remembers the promise given to Noah, that the 
earth's harvest would never fail, and the seed is cast 
forth from his hand. Afterward the clouds pour out 
their treasures, and soften the soil ; the sun sends down 
his genial influences ; and the seed sown with so much 
misery and almost with despair springs up. The fields 
wave with yellow corn ; the harvest is abundant, and the 
reapers bring in the sheaves with gladness.' ' 1 So it was 
indeed with the returned exiles. Through many troubles 
they wrought their way to success ; the city was built, the 
Temple was restored, their worship was re-established. 
But it was in " troublous times." They had many difficul- 
ties to encounter, they had long delays to endure. But 
they conquered in the end, and the gladness of their 
hearts at the Dedication added another to the number 
of the great feasts of their ecclesiastical year. 

Let us not forget that work for God is never lost. 

1 The Pilgrim Psalms, by N. McMichael, D.D., p. 145. 



288 CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 



Sometimes the harvest may fail in the husbandry of 
earth, but it never fails in spiritual fields. There are 
no exceptions to this rule ; we may work amid many 
discouragements. Often the seed we sow, may be mois- 
tened with our tears, and occasionally too, there may 
be long delay between the sowing and the reaping ; but 
in due season the harvest shall be gathered in. The 
sower perhaps may not always be himself the reaper ; 
but always there will be a crop, and always the feast of 
harvest-home will be full of gladness. Therefore, what- 
ever may betide, see that you labor on at the work which 
God has given you to do. Never mind though every- 
thing may seem to be against you ; God is with you, and 
that is enough. As Miss Hopkins has said, " If you are 
sure that it is God's will that you should do it, then 
6 1 can't ' must be a lie in the lips that repeat, ' I 
believe in the Holy Ghost.'" 

So let each of us in his own sphere take the comfort 
of this thought to himself. Parent ! though your chil- 
dren may be wayward, and may seem to be rebellious, 
sow on in prayer and patience and holy example and 
loving expostulation, for you shall see at length the 
reward of your labors in such a form as shall fill your 
hearts with gladness. Teacher ! though your scholars 
may seem careless and indifferent ; though they may 
laugh at your tenderest admonitions, and treat your sol- 
emnest words with ridicule, sow on in love and persever- 
ance, in long-suffering and meekness ; for the day is at 
hand when you shall " come with rejoicing, bringing your 
sheaves with you." Pastor ! though you may see little 
present fruit of your labor, and may often go to your 
closet or to your couch with the prophet's words coming 
broken from your lips, " Who hath believed our report ? 
and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed ? " 



CHARACTERISTICS AND TRIALS OF REVIVAL. 289 



sow on, sow on, for you shall not be forgotten in the 
day of final ingathering ; and among the surprises of 
that glorious time none will be to you more gladsome 
than the sight of the blessed fruit that has sprung from 
seed which you thought had been utterly unproductive. 
Here is a song which has often sustained me ; let me 
pass it on to be a comfort to you. 

Went ye not forth with prayer ? 

Then ye went not forth in vain ; 
" The Sower, the Son of Man," was there, 

And his was that precious grain. 

Ye may not see the bud, 

The first sweet signs of Spring, 
The first slow drops of the quickening shower 

On. the dry hard ground that ring. 

But the harvest-home ye '11 keep, 

The summer of life ye '11 share ; 
When they that sow and they that reap 

Rejoice together there. 



19 



XXIII. 

THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART. 

Which shall know every man the plague of his own 
heart. — 1 Kings viii. 38. 

The prayer from which these words are taken was 
offered by Solomon at the dedication of the Temple. 
It is remarkable for many things, but for none more 
than for its wonderful combination of brevity and 
comprehensiveness, with specific adaptation to many 
varieties of experience. Ordinary men are apt to 
become tedious just in the proportion in which they 
endeavor to include different forms of individual neces- 
sity in the petitions which they offer as the leaders of 
public prayer in the great congregation. If they try to 
be specific, they become diffuse ; while, on the other 
hand, if they wish to cultivate brevity, they become 
general, and offer supplications which, like ready-made 
clothes, are so constructed as to suit everybody in a 
loose way, but fit nobody exactly. Any man can be brief 
and comprehensive if he is sufficiently general ; but to 
have such individuality of detail as shall meet the per- 
sonal case of each suppliant, while there is no lack of 
comprehensiveness and no infringement of brevity, — 
that is one of the rarest and at the same time one of 
the most desirable qualifications for the conduct of 
public prayer. 



THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART 291 

Now, that qualification Solomon seems to have pre- 
eminently possessed ; for here, on the greatest occasion 
of his life, he does not suffer himself to be led away 
from the matter in hand by any temptation to the dis- 
play of himself, but within the short compass of a few 
minutes he goes round the entire circumference of na- 
tional necessity, whether present or prospective, while 
by his minute and suggestive phrases he touches the 
keys of individual hearts and makes each one vibrate 
with the tone of a personal petition. 

It would be an interesting and profitable thing, espe- 
cially for those among us who are called to lead the 
devotions of the sanctuary, to study this prayer, with 
the view of finding out if possible how this result was 
reached. But I do not enter upon that now. I only 
take time to remark that in the clause which I have 
selected as my text we have an illustration of one of the 
means by which it was attained. For such a phrase 
would startle every one in the vast assemblage ; it 
would send each one in upon himself to search for the 
hidden plague, and bring him out again to join with 
deeper and devouter earnestness in the prayer with 
which it was associated. Yet, you observe, it does not 
name any detail. It is specific not because it is enu- 
morative of particulars, but because it suggests to each 
person what the precise detail in his own case is, and 
sends him to join in the general prayer with that dis- 
tinctly in his view. It was thus not so much an inter- 
cession for the people as an incitement to them to unite 
in the prayer which he was offering with them ; and in 
that respect it is worthy of imitation by all who are 
called to lead others in general supplication. 

But though I could not permit myself to overlook this 
remarkable quality in the prayer of Solomon as a whole, 

I- 



292 



THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART. 



I do not mean to dwell longer on it now. My business 
at this time is with the meaning of this particular clause, 
if haply I may be able to bring something out of it that 
may be profitable to our own souls. I have heard of men 
as having been converted through the instrumentality of 
an expression in a minister's public prayer ; would that 
a similar effect might follow the setting out into distinct- 
ness here to-day of this deeply suggestive utterance in 
that of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple ! 

Let us notice, then, in the first place, that each man's 
heart has its own plague. Now here the question at 
once emerges, what we are to understand by that 
" plague " in this particular connection. Plainly, it 
cannot be meant for a designation of what has been 
called the original depravity of the soul, for that is ge- 
nerically the same in every man, while this, as the lan- 
guage of the text clearly implies, is specifically different 
in each. That is a nature ; this is the particular out- 
come of the nature in different instances. That is a soil ; 
this is the form in which the quality of the soil reveals 
itself in each of the different sorts of plants which are 
growing out of the soil ; or to illustrate from a precisely 
analogous case, that is general debility, this is a dis- 
ease. Depravity is in the soul, just as mortality is in the 
body, from the beginning. All men are depraved, just 
as all men are mortal. But precisely as the mortality 
of the body works its way out into some organic disease 
which takes its form and character from the constitution 
and habits of the man, so the depravity of the heart 
concentrates itself in and works its mischief through 
some particular " plague," the form of which is deter- 
mined by something in the individuality of the man 
himself. Nay, more, just as, despite his belief in the 



THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART. 



293 



mortality of the race, a man comes first and most dis- 
tinctly to the realization of his own mortality by the 
knowledge that he is suffering from a dangerous disease, 
so in the same way a man comes most vividly to a sense 
of his depravity by the perception of the particular 
plague of his own heart. 

What that plague is may be dependent on many 
things in himself. Thus, his constitutional tempera- 
ment may have much to do with it. I do not enter now 
into the consideration of the mysterious action and 
reaction of soul and body on each other in our complex 
humanity. I simply note the fact that what we call 
temperament is a real thing. It is true that the spiritual 
part of our nature acts in a powerful way on the phy- 
sical • but it is equally true that the physical reacts 
mightily on the spiritual. I believe that there are indi- 
vidualities of soul as well as of body, and that when a 
spirit with its peculiar characteristics is united to a 
body it assimilates its habitation to its own require- 
ments ; while, on the other hand, the body acts through 
its organs and appetites upon its great inhabitant. Even 
if man never had fallen there would still have been what 
we call constitutional differences between individuals, 
though in that case they would have been manifested 
in different aspects of holiness, whereas now they have 
developed themselves into different forms of sin. Take, 
for example, the man who is ardent and impulsive, and 
in him you find a tendency to explosiveness of temper, 
rashness of conduct, or hastiness of speech. Over against 
him you may place the melancholy individual whose 
inclination is to look on the dark side of things, and 
who as one result of that is apt to yield to fretfulness 
and discontent. Then, again, there is the sanguine per- 
son who is always so sure of success that lie is prone to 



294 



THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART. 



begin to build without counting the cost, and so is rarely 
able to finish. Perfectly distinct from all these is the 
lymphatic man, who loves his ease so well that he counts 
it a trouble to say " no," and so from mere indolence is 
inclined to " drift " with the current. While as another 
variety you have the stubborn, contradictious man, whose 
disposition is to be opposite to other people, and who is 
so constantly on the defensive that he is apt to become 
peculiarly o/fensive. Now, these illustrations may serve 
to show how much temperament has to do with the 
determination of that which comes to be pre-eminently 
the plague of the heart. Just as in certain people there 
are predispositions to some forms of physical disease, so 
there are in some men tendencies — hereditary, constitu- 
tional, or temperamental — to some particular sins. 

Then, again, this plague of the heart may be partially 
accounted for in many men by the circumstances in 
which their lives are spent, or what certain modern 
philosophers would call their " environment." Just as 
some diseases are traceable to climate, some to locality, 
some to exposure, to infection, and so forth, so the par- 
ticular heart plague of some men may be determined 
very largely by the surroundings in which we find them. 
The poor have their peculiar dangers, and the rich have 
theirs. What these are on both sides has been admi- 
rably set forth by Agur in his beautiful prayer, " Give me 
neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food conve- 
nient for me ; " not riches, " lest I be full and deny 
thee ; " not poverty, " lest I be poor and steal, and take 
the name of my God in vain." The man whose sphere 
of labor is on shore has one class of evils to contend 
with, while the sailor has quite another. The lawyer, 
who sees so much of the worst side of human nature, is 
prone to become universally suspicious. The medical 



THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART. 



295 



man, who is working so constantly on the body, is apt to 
degenerate into materialism. And the minister of the 
Gospel, whose daily occupation requires him to deal 
with spiritual things, and to be much in devotion 
with others, needs to be particularly on his guard lest 
he lose all sense of their importance and become an 
empty formalist. 

So, again, as tending to give specialty to this plague, 
there are influences which are connected with the time of 
life at which we have arrived and the spirit of the age in 
which we live. The youth at the birth-time of the appe- 
tites and passions, with his vehement self-assertion, his 
constant reading of the declaration of independence, and 
his utter contempt for advice, is apt to have this plague 
in one form ; the old man is just as liable to have it in 
another ; while the man of middle age may have it in 
one that is different from either. Moreover, the partic- 
ular dangers of all are aggravated by the influence of the 
age. Its popular ambitions, its prevalent idolatries, its 
fashionable unbeliefs, its pestilential customs, — all com- 
bine to give intensity as well as form to the plague in 
each man's heart. Just as there are times when certain 
dangerous diseases are terribly prevalent, so there are 
seasons of spiritual epidemic, when special forms of sin 
seem to pass with some sort of contagion through a 
community and sweep off their victims in unusual num- 
bers. But I need not dwell further upon this point, for 
it must be patent to all that, however we may account 
for the diversity between different individuals in the 
matter, each man has his own plague of heart. 

I advance a step farther, therefore, and go on to 
remark in the second place, that it is a great thing when 
one knows the plague of his own heart. Every man has 



296 THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART, 



not this knowledge. Disease of the heart, physically 
speaking, is proverbially insidious. Many a one has it, 
and knows nothing about it until it carries him off ; and 
in the spiritual department it is often similar. Sin is 
deceitful. Habit blunts consciousness. We are blind 
to that which we do not want to see. We are ignorant 
of the strength of that which we have no wish to resist. 
And the longer we indulge in any evil the heart becomes 
the more hardened to the sense of the evil. Thus one 
may have a very serious plague in his own heart without 
the consciousness of any particular attachment to any 
form of sin. But God has many ways of revealing a 
man to himself. Sometimes, even before he has become 
an overt sinner, God permits him to be subjected to the 
strongest temptations of avarice or of appetite. He lets 
him be led up almost to the very point of yielding, and 
then at the critical and decisive moment he opens his 
eyes to that which he was about to do ; shows him its 
enormity, its ingratitude, and its results, and all with 
such tremendous power that he starts back aghast at the 
mystery of iniquity which he has discovered within him- 
self. It is as if he had been walking in the darkness 
over a rugged mountain pass, and a flash of lightning 
had revealed to him that he was just about to step over 
a fearful precipice into a horrible abyss, and he flings 
himself back with the exclamation, " The heart is deceit- 
ful above all things, and desperately wicked, Who can 
know it ? Lord, what is man ? and what am I ?" 

Sometimes, again, after a man has been for a while 
indulging in sin, God opens his eyes to the plague of 
his heart, through his own efforts at reform. We never 
know the strength of a habit until we try to break it off. 
You do not feel bonds while you are asleep ; but so soon 
as you awake, and endeavor to move, they force themselves 



THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART. 



297 



upon your consciousness. Many a poor drunkard has 
thought that his ' ; plague " was only a slight ailment, 
until he sought to rid himself of it, and then, for the 
first time, its seriousness has revealed itself to him. 
And the same is true of other evil habits. While we 
indulge them wq think that they are but threads ; but 
when we seek to break them, and the agony of the effort 
reveals to us the severity of the plague, we find that they 
are cables. 

Occasionally again we may be brought to the knowl- 
edge of our heart plague by the prevalence of adversity 
or affliction throughout the community. That, indeed, 
is the particular case described by Solomon in my text. 
He supposes that there has come over the land a time of 
" pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, caterpillar ; " or 
that an enemy has invaded the country, and besieged its 
cities ; and that the people, led thereby to self-examina- 
tion, had come every man to the knowledge of the plague 
of his own heart, and had spread forth their hands to 
God in prayer for deliverance. Nor is this by any means 
an unusual case. Individual affliction has often issued 
in individual conversion ; and national calamity has fre- 
quently led to national revival. It is not good for a 
community any more than for an individual to enjoy 
uninterrupted prosperity. When men have "no changes," 
then they " fear not God ; " and oftentimes even the sore 
calamity of war has been the means of leading a nation 
to the discovery and acknowledgment of its sin, and to 
its hearty and entire repentance thereof. Darkness is 
often necessary to the success of a chemical experiment ; 
and in like manner, when God w r ould show us the enor- 
mity of our heart plague, he puts us into affliction that we 
may see it the more clearly. What Manasseh could not 
see in the light of the Jewish palace he soon discovered 



298 



THE PLAGUE OF THE HEART. 



in the darkness of the Babylonian prison. What the 
prodigal could not perceive in the brightness of his 
father's house he was at no loss to descry amid the 
privation of a swineherd's life, Few things open the 
eyes more thoroughly than adversity. It is often a ter- 
rible ordeal, but it is usually effectual. 

Then to mention only one other way in which God 
reveals a man's heart plague to him, he may bring him 
into direct and immediate contact with his own truth. 
" The entrance of God's word giveth light," — and the 
first thing that light does is to show the man to himself. 
A single passage of Scripture flashed in upon the soul 
by the power of the Holy Spirit has been enough to send 
a sinner away in the agonies of an awakened conscience, 
crying, " What must I do to be saved ? " When the 
woman was brought face to face with Christ she said, 
" He shewed me all things that ever I did ; " and when, 
whether by the incidental quotation of a part of it, or by 
the faithful proclamation of some truth taken from it, a 
man is brought face to face with the word of God in such " a 
narrow place" that he cannot evade the issue, he discovers 
forthwith the plague of his own heart. It is in this way 
not unfrequently that God answers the prayer, " Search 
me, O God, and know my heart ; try me and know my 
thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting." 

But now in the third place, supposing that a man 
knows the plague of his own heart, what is he to do 
about it ? The one great indispensable thing to be done 
is to bring it to God in prayer. The man cannot cure it 
himself. He must apply to God in Christ for that ; and 
there are many promises given for his encouragement. 
Thus the prophet Ezekiel has said in Jehovah's name, 



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299 



" A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will 
I put within you;" and Jeremiah has said in similar 
phrase, " I will give them one heart and one way, that 
they may fear me for ever ; " and again, " I will put my 
fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me ; " 
while the Evangelist John has declared concerning 
Christ, that "to as many as received him, to them gave 
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that 
believe on his name ; which were born not of blood, nor 
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
God." To get rid of the plague of the heart, therefore, 
we " must be born again," and to be born again we must 
believe in him who has been lifted up, " that whosoever 
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting- 
life." This faith unites the man to Christ so that he is 
" in " him ; and " if any man be in Christ, he is a new 
creature ; old things are passed away, and all things are 
become new." Thus the discovery of the plague of our 
own hearts to be of lasting benefit to us must be com- 
bined with that of "the kindness and love of God our 
Saviour," who has shown us that " not by works of 
righteousness which we have done, but according to his 
mercy he saves us, by the washing of regeneration and 
the renewing of the Holy Ghost." The knowledge of 
the existence of the plague within us would only sink us 
into despair, unless it were also associated with the per- 
ception by us of the love of our Great Physician, who 
alone can deliver us from its danger, and work a cure in 
us by his renewing grace. Beautifully has one said : 
" He who prays, Shew me myself, Lord ! should take 
good care to add, lest self-knowledge should plunge him 
into despair, Show me also thyself. The knowledge 
of the plague in our own hearts will lead us to the con- 
clusion that the heart which showed so fair without is 



300 



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a whited sepulchre, — an Augean stable which it requires 
a moral Hercules to cleanse ; but blessed be God, the 
love of Christ, and the blood of Christ, and the grace 
of Christ are stronger than ten thousand corruptions, 
though fastened down to the soul by the chain of evil 
habit. And when God exhibits to the soul his love as 
mirrored in those bleeding wounds, and the omnipotence 
of his free grace, the energy which is felt there is great 
enough to crush any and every foe. The gentlest touch 
of God's finger upon the soul is like the touch of the 
dawn upon the dark horizon. Birds waken and trill 
their notes, and leaves flutter in the fresh breeze ; and 
there is an electric thrill of joy and hope through the 
whole domain of nature. My hearer, thy whole soul 
shall leap up at that touch ; holy affections shall lift up 
their hymn of praise within thee, thy heart shall flutter 
with mingled awe and joy, and thou shall know that thou 
hast found thy Lord." 1 Let no one therefore despair. 
The plague need not be mortal. There is " balm in 
Gilead;" there is a Physician there. That remedy is 
potent for every form of the malady ; and there are 
no hopeless cases in that Physician's practice. The 
only incurables are those who persistently refuse to 
make application unto him. When he was upon the 
earth he healed all that had diseases and came to 
him ; and these miracles of his were signs or acted 
parables to teach us that he can cure every form of 
plague which the human heart can know. Go to him, 
then, and he will be to you " Jehovah Rophekah, the 
Lord that healeth thee." 

As I dwell on this thought there rises up before 
me the vision of that scene which I have always re- 

1 Thoughts on Personal Religion, by Dean E. M. Goulburn, pp 209, 
210. 



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301 



garded as one of the most beautiful in the Gospel 
narratives: "Now when the sun was setting, all they 
that had any sick with divers diseases brought them 
unto him ; and he laid his hands on every one of them 
and healed them." Was there ever anything more de- 
lightful ? The westering sun, just disappearing behind 
the mountain, was reddening with its softest radiance the 
surface of the Galilean lake, and the sick ones of Caper- 
naum were carried to his feet, while their bearers united 
with themselves in pleading for his help, and — no nig- 
gard he in the dispensation of his blessings — " he laid 
his hands on every one of them and healed them." But 
as I gaze on, the vision widens from Capernaum to the 
world, and still I see the blessed Redeemer exercising 
his divine and chosen vocation as the Healer of Human- 
ity. From " every clime and coast " the sin-sick sons of 
Adam, " every man that knoweth the plague of his own 
heart," come to him, — the guilty, the backsliding, the 
burdened, the forlorn, the tempted, the victims of evil 
habits, and the worn-out votaries of pleasure ; and " he 
lays his hand on every one of them and heals them." 
My hearers, why should you not join the throng ? With 
some of you the sun may be setting ; in some of you the 
malady may be of the most virulent sort ; but none of 
you yet are beyond his aid. Take that heart plague, 
then, to him, and " he will lay his hands upon you and 
heal you." 



THE END. 



